X-Men: Days Of Future Past scores franchise best atop US box office

X-Men: Days Of Future Past. -- FILE PHOTO: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX/CINEMA STILL
X-Men: Days Of Future Past. -- FILE PHOTO: TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX/CINEMA STILL

LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The mutant superheroes from the latest blockbuster X-Men film pulverised rivals at North America's box office this weekend to record the franchise's biggest ever opening, industry figures showed on Monday.

X-Men: Days of Future Past, a time-bending movie already a hit with critics, debuted with a three-day US$90.8 milllion (S$114 million), or US$110.6 million including the Monday Memorial Day holiday.

The star-studded cast of the movie, including Hugh Jackman, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, Michael Fassbender and Halle Berry, helped the film make US$261.7 million globally, more than any of the six previous X-Men outings, according to tracker Exhibitor Relations.

In second place in a mutant-monster weekend was Godzilla, featuring Breaking Bad star Bryan Cranston as a tortured Japanese-speaking scientist battling to save humanity.

The film raked in US$30.9 million over three days, or US$38.4 million including Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, romantic comedy Blended, featuring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, opened over the weekend in third place, with US$14.3 million, or US$17.7 million including the holiday.

Neighbors starring Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne as a couple living next door to a raucous fraternity house, earned a fourth-place ranking with US$14 million, or US$17.1 million over the long weekend.

In fifth place was another comic-book favourite, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which fell from third place last week, earning US$7.8 million, or US$10 million including Monday.

Million Dollar Arm which stars Jon Hamm and tells the true story of a Major League Baseball agent who goes to India to find the next big thing among cricket players, came in sixth place, pulling in US$7 million, or US$9.2 million with Memorial Day ticket sales.

Sliding to seventh was The Other Woman, a romantic comedy starring Cameron Diaz, with US$3.7 million or US$4.5 million over the four-day period.

Animated flick Rio 2 fell one place to eighth, taking in US$2.5 million or US$3.4 million including Monday.

The movie only barely overtook foodie flick Chef, the story of a fictional celebrity chef who decides to embark on a food-truck adventure, which brought in US$2.3 million or US$3 million including the holiday.

Rounding out the top ten was Heaven Is for Real, starring Greg Kinnear as the father of a four-year-old boy who wakes up from emergency surgery with a story about going to heaven and back, with ticket sales US$2 million, or US$2.8 for the four-day period.

In other cinema ticket sales news Monday, Disney's Oscar-winning Frozen became the fifth highest-grossing movie of all time, after overtaking Iron Man 3 at the global box office, with some US$1.22 billion in worldwide earnings, according to the Box Office Mojo tracker.

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