LOS ANGELES — "The Town" is the talk of the box office, opening with $23.8 million to take the No. 1 spot.

The intense Warner Bros. drama about bank robbers in an insular section of Boston earned rave reviews. This is the second movie directed by Ben Affleck, who stars alongside Jeremy Renner, Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm and Chris Cooper.

Most box-office projections showed "Easy A" coming out on top. But as Warner Bros. distribution chief Dan Fellman said, everything came together for "The Town" over the past 10 days, including playing well at the Toronto International Film Festival.

"The campaign was always great. We positioned it to open in early fall. We had confidence in the movie — we felt if we could get in early and give it an opportunity to run, it would," Fellman said.

Estimated sales were:

1. "The Town," $23.8 million.

2. "Easy A," 18.2 million.

3. "Devil," $12.6 million.

4. "Resident Evil: Afterlife," $10.1 million.

5. "Alpha and Omega," $9.2 million.

6. "Takers," $9 million.

7. "The American," $2.8 million.

8. "Inception," $2 million.

9. "The Other Guys," $2 million.

10. "Machete," $1.7 million.