LOS ANGELES: "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" shot straight to the top of North America's box office in its debut weekend -- and scored the biggest April opening of all time, figures showed Monday.
The superhero saga from Disney's Marvel Studios, starring Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, pulled in a hefty $95 million, box office tracker Exhibitor Relations said.
The critically-praised movie has made $207 million outside the United States, for a global take so far of $303.3 million, it said.
The 3-D, $170-million sequel to "Captain America: The First Avenger" is also the biggest debut so far this year, outearning the previous box office winner "The Lego Movie," which in February grossed $69 million in its first weekend.
Buoyed by its record opening, Marvel meanwhile announced that the third "Captain America" instalment will be released on May 6, 2016.
That announcement sets up a clash of the comic-book titans, as rival studio giant Warner Bros have pencilled in the same date for the release of their so far-untitled Superman-Batman movie.
The Warner Bros movie project started life as a sequel to last year's "Man of Steel," a reboot of the Superman franchise directed by Zack Snyder with Briton Henry Cavill in the title role.
But it is now set to bring in the caped crusader in a superhero mash-up, a formula which has had repeated success in recent years.
Before then, fans of comic-book movie characters can look forward to another helping of Captain America along with "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" in Marvel's "Avengers: Age of Ultron," set for May 1, 2015.
"The Avengers," to which next year's movie is a sequel, scored the biggest domestic weekend debut of all time in May 2012 with a staggering $207.4 million in ticket sales.
This weekend, meanwhile, biblical epic "Noah" sank to second place in its second weekend, with $17 million in ticket sales. The action drama, reuniting Russell Crowe with Jennifer Connelly, his co-star from 2001's "A Beautiful Mind," topped the box office on its debut last weekend.
In third place, with $13 million, was teen adventure "Divergent," the dystopian tale of a young woman in a futuristic society, based on the popular young adult novel of the same name.
Religiously themed "God's Not Dead," which tells the story of a college freshman who debates his atheist philosophy professor, climbed one spot to fourth place with $7.7 million.
In fifth was "Muppets Most Wanted," Kermit and company's latest outing, which raked in $6.15 million.
It was closely trailed by Wes Anderson's quirky "The Grand Budapest Hotel," which earned $6.12 million for sixth place.
The musical comedy caper was ahead of "Mr Peabody and Sherman," based on characters from the 1960s television cartoon "Rocky and Bullwinkle," which earned $5.1 million.
Action flick "Sabotage," starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sam Worthington was in eighth spot with a whisker under $2 million.
Car-chase action movie "Need for Speed" moved down one spot on the box office grid, in ninth place with $1.8 million.
Rounding out the top 10 was "Non-Stop," the Liam Neeson action movie set on a long-haul flight, which added another $1.79 million to its earnings.
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