Gatsby exceeds expectations in box-office debut

Carey Mulligan and Leonardo DiCaprio, stars of 'The Great Gatsby'. Photo / Supplied

Super-hero blockbuster sequel Iron Man 3 stayed on top at the US box office after it's mega debut a week earlier - but The Great Gatsby was also a power player, industry estimates showed on Sunday.

On its second weekend in US theatres, Iron Man 3, starring Robert Downey Jr as the title character, took in US$72.5 million (NZ$87.34 million), according to industry tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Added to its take since it opened last weekend with US$175.3 million - the second biggest box office debut ever - the comic book superhero flick has now racked up a total of US$284.9 million.

But The Great Gatsby, starring Leonardo Di Caprio in Australian Baz Luhrmann's adaptation of the literary classic, was a respectable number two, with US$51.1 million in box office receipts in its opening weekend.

The rest of the movies in the week's top ten trailed far behind, with action-comedy Pain and Gain, starring Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, earning a comparatively paltry US$5 million for third place.

In the fourth spot, romantic comedy Peeples, starring Craig Robinson as a boyfriend who initially fails to impress the tony family of his girlfriend, played by Kerry Washington, took in US$4.9 million.

Not far behind was 42, a biopic about trailblazing black baseball star Jackie Robinson, which made US$4.7 million for fifth place.

The sixth spot, with US$3.9 million, went to Oblivion, the post-apocalyptic action flick starring Tom Cruise, followed by The Croods - a stone-age cartoon - in seventh, with US$3.6 million.

The Big Wedding - a star-studded comedy featuring Robert De Niro, Katherine Heigl, Diane Keaton and Robin Williams - came in eighth place, taking in US$2.5 million.

Mud, a coming-of-age story starring Matthew McConaughey and Reese Witherspoon, earned an estimated US$2.4 million, for ninth place.

And rounding out the top 10 with US$802,000 was Walt Disney's 3D fantasy adventure flick Oz the Great and Powerful, which has earned a grand total of nearly US$230 million since it opened ten weeks ago.

- AFP