Avengers Continue To Crush Box Office Rivals

Avengers: Age Of Ultron has become the second-fastest film to top $300m (£194m) at the box office in the US.

The superhero sequel defeated its rivals in its second weekend in cinemas, taking $77.2m domestically.

The film has earned a staggering $312.9m in just 10 days, tying with The Dark Knight to become the second-fastest film to do so.

It is now surging towards the $1bn (£647m) mark after taking $875m in three weeks, figures from box office tracker Exhibitor Relations showed.

However, the film is still lagging behind 2012's The Avengers, which made $103.1m in its second weekend in cinemas and had a domestic total of $373m at the same point in the cycle.

The film, starring Chris Evans (Captain America), Robert Downey Jr (Iron Man), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow) and Jeremy Renner (Hawkeye), sees the super team battling to save Earth from destruction by the villainous robot Ultron.

The Disney and Marvel sequel opens in China on 12 May with midnight screenings. The late-night sellouts have even prompted IMAX screens to add 3am showings to their schedule.

The Avengers success was trouble for new release Hot Pursuit, a comedy starring Reese Witherspoon and Sofia Vergara, which took second place with a disappointing $13.3m.

The film has been panned by critics with Rotten Tomatoes giving the film a score of just 6%, with one critic branding it "a complete and total comic misfire that is almost painful to watch".

Outside of the top two, no other film managed to make it past the $10m barrier, reflecting the dominance of Avengers as the summer blockbuster season gets into swing.

Third place went to fantasy drama The Age Of Adaline starring Blake Lively as a woman in the 1920s who mysteriously stops ageing after being involved in a car accident.