Captain America scores 'fifth best' opening weekend of all time

Captain America: Civil War has opened the summer with a dominant $181.8m (£125.8m) weekend in the United States - the fifth best of all time.

It is the third Captain America movie in the Marvel franchise.

The movie, which stars Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr and Scarlett Johansson is expected to eclipse 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier at $259m (£179.2m) by the end of next weekend.

It includes a much-publicised fight between Captain America and Iron Man.

Plus there are introductions of new characters in Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther and Tom Holland's Spider-Man.

Its opening record trails Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which opened at $248m (£172m), Jurassic World at $208.8m (£145m), Marvel's The Avengers at $207.4m (£144m) and Avengers: Age of Ultron at $191.3m (£132.4m) .

2011's Captain America: The First Avenger opened at $176.6m (£122.2m).

Captain America is also keeping the US box office on track for a record performance in 2016 with $3.856bn (£2.669bn) through this weekend.

Disney has played a major role in that gain with The Jungle Book and Zootopia delivering blockbuster numbers.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens provided $285m (£197m), or 30% of its $936m (£648m) total.