'No Good Deed' goes unpunished at the box office

LOS ANGELES – It took a murderous Idris Elba and a pair of dolphin buddies to defeat "Guardians of the Galaxy" at movie theaters.

The Sony thriller "No Good Deed," which stars Elba as an escaped convict and Taraji P. Henson as the innocent he terrorizes, opened with $24.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday.

The film nearly doubled its reported budget in its first week of release, said Paul Dergarabedian, of box-office tracker Rentrak.

The feel-good film "Dolphin Tale 2" debuted in second place. The story stars Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd reprising their roles from the 2011 original.

Estimated ticket weekend sales:

1. "No Good Deed," $24.5 million.

2. "Dolphin Tale 2," $16.5 million.

4. "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles," $4.8 million.

5. "Let's Be Cops," $4.3 million. 6. "The Drop," $4.2 million.

7. "If I Stay," $4 million.

8. "The November Man," $2.7 million.

9. "The Giver," $2.6 million.