Green Lantern lights up the US box office

Superhero comic book adaptation Green Lantern was the box office champion last weekend, with $53.2 million in North American ticket sales as it debuted at number one.

Canadian heart-throb Ryan Reynolds stars as superhero Hal Jordan and Blake Lively as love interest Carol Ferris in the $200 million live-action movie in which Green Lantern Corps warriors try to defeat supervillain Parallax.

One foe Green Lantern did defeat was Super 8, which marked its second box office week with $21.5 million at the number two spot. The J.J. Abrams sci-fi thriller had debuted at number one last week.

Mr Popper’s Penguins, starring comedian Jim Carrey, waddled into the number three spot in its first weekend and brought in $18.4 million.

In fourth place, X-Men: First Class spent its third week at the box office raking in $11.9 million. The Marvel comic superhero film has brought in more than $120 million domestically and more than $150 million internationally.

But so far this summer the highest grossing domestic release is The Hangover: Part II, which refuses to let the party die. In its fourth week it earned an estimated $10.1 million, for a total $233.1 million, in fifth spot.

Globally Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, has grossed $220 million and $952 million around the world, making it the 11th biggest box office hit ever. It took eighth spot at the weekend with $6.6 million in ticket sales.

Just above and below it in the top 10 were Kung Fu Panda 2, at number six with $9 million, Bridesmaids in seventh with $7.1 million, and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris in ninth with $4.9 million.

Rounding out the top 10 during its second week was Judy Moody and the Not Bummer Summer with $2.1 million in earnings.