It turns out that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer didn't have to count on the heroics of James Bond to break the struggling studio's yearlong box-office free-fall.

Instead, the ensemble comedy "Barbershop" stunned industry experts and surpassed MGM's own expectations by posting the fourth-best September opening ever, landing atop the box-office charts with a gross of $20.6 million in its debut weekend, according to final figures released Monday.

"This was very much a surprise," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations Co. "You can't predict it. Something like this just comes along and surprises everybody."

"We knew we had a very, very strong movie that audiences loved when we tested it," said Chris McGurk, MGM's vice chairman and chief operating officer. "We thought it was going to be successful but, no, we didn't think it would do over $20 million."