'Captain Marvel' rules UK box office with highest opening weekend for a Marvel origin movie

Captain Marvel has smashed superhero records at the UK box office, landing the highest ever opening weekend total for a standalone Marvel origin movie.

Brie Larson’s performance as the Kree powerhouse Carol Danvers catapulted the film to a figure of £12.75m over the weekend, from 655 cinemas.

The film accounted for more than two thirds of the entire UK box office takings, due to a lack of blockbuster competition.

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The opening figure dwarfs the £10.5m weekend opening posted by Black Panther a year ago, but it’s worth noting that Ryan Coogler’s film opened with a total of £17.7m after the inclusion of its three days of previews.

Captain Marvel‘s success, however, did not allow it to beat the imposing total posted by Avengers: Infinity War, which managed to earn a mammoth £23.1m over its UK opening weekend in April 2018.

Marvel’s latest movie knocked WWE wrestling biopic Fighting With My Family off the top spot, though Stephen Merchant’s comedy did still land in second place with a respectable week two total of £1.03m.

Third spot went to The Lego Movie 2, which is still bringing in solid money after five weeks on release in the UK.

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Captain Marvel has wowed audiences all over the world, landing with a huge global box office debut of $455m (£348m), with $153m (£117m) in North America alone.

Directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Captain Marvel introduces Carol Danvers to the Marvel Cinematic Universe ahead of what is expected to be a big role in Avengers: Endgame, which hits UK cinemas in April.

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The film also stars Samuel L. Jackson as a younger take on Avengers boss Nick Fury, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, Lashana Lynch and Annette Bening.