X-Men beats Alice to top North American box office

Olivia Munn plays Psylocke in X-Men: Apocalypse

The latest X-Men outing has beaten Alice Through the Looking Glass to the top of the North American box office.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Alice could only manage $28.1m (£19.2m), while X-Men: Apocalypse debuted on top with an estimated $65m (£44.4m).

Both films received poor reviews from the critics.

On Friday, Alice Through the Looking Glass's star Johnny Depp received a restraining order after wife Amber Heard alleged he assaulted her.

Heard had filed for divorce earlier in the week.

But Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore, said the takings for Disney's Alice Through the Looking Glass probably had little to do with the news of Heard's allegations.

"I think the reviews had more to do with the film's performance than any personal drama for Depp," Dergarabedian said.

Depp attended the US premiere of Alice Through the Looking Glass last week.

The first film, Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, took $116m in its opening weekend in 2010.

The sequel, directed by James Bobin, had been expected to open with $60m plus. The film cost $170m (£116m) to make.

"It's a disappointing result," said Dave Hollis, distribution chief for Disney, who said the firm's strategy was to make "big bets".

"But when you make big bets, there are times when you have results that are disappointing," he added.

The latest X-Men instalment also opened well below the $90.8m debut of 2014's X-Men: Days of Future Past and the $132.4m (£90.5m) opening of February's X-Men spin-off Deadpool.

The Angry Birds Movie grossed $18.7m (£12.7m) in its second weekend, knocking it back from first to third place.

Captain America: Civil War took fourth spot, with comedy Neighbors: Sorority Rising rounding out the top five.