LOS ANGELES (AFP) - The fearsome Jurassic Park dinosaurs have gobbled up the box office competition to score the biggest worldwide opening weekend ever.

The action-packed Jurassic World, featuring a new and particularly lethal hybrid dinosaur, debuted in global cinemas with a whopping US$511 million (S$688.7 million), said box office tracker Exhibitor Relations on Sunday.

That was the largest weekend take in history, eclipsing Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (US$483 million in 2011), said The Hollywood Reporter.

Jurassic World earned US$100 million in China alone and topped the box office in 66 countries.

In North America, Jurassic World made US$204.6 million, just short of the record for an opening weekend in the region, held by The Avengers at US$207.4 million in 2012.

"This is absolutely a four-quadrant movie and is working on so many levels. The release date was awesome and everybody stayed off of our date," The Hollywood Reporter quoted Universal domestic distribution chief Nick Carpou as saying.

Co-produced by Steven Spielberg - who directed the first two of the four films - Jurassic World takes us back to the island theme park where scientists first revived T-Rex and Co for paying customers more than two decades ago.

The cast of the film includes Chris Pratt as chief dinosaur keeper, Bryce Dallas Howard as the park's marketing guru and a multi-ethnic array of actors.