Avengers: Age of Ultron beats Fast & Furious 7 and Fifty Shades of Grey to score highest UK opening since Skyfall

Josh Whedon's sequel also achieved the biggest superhero opening ever

Marvel's latest poster for its hugely successful new movie Avengers: Age of Ultron

Avengers: Age of Ultron has proved it has the superhero calibre necessary to break box office records by scoring the UK’s biggest opening of 2015 so far.

Marvel’s hotly-awaited blockbuster earned £18 million from 585 venues on its first weekend, smashing previous record-holder Fast & Furious 7 into the ground with a single blow of Thor’s hammer and slotting smoothly into eighth place in the UK’s highest debuts list.

Studio bosses will be delighted as Avengers: Age of Ultron now holds the highest April opening in history, the best ever for a superhero movie and Disney’s all-time single-day revenues high too (a massive £6.18 million on Saturday alone).

The sequel’s opening is the best since James Bond movie Skyfall took £20.1 million in 2012, beating storming S&M success Fifty Shades of Grey, which grossed £13.5m over Valentine’s Day weekend.

Whether or not Avengers can defend its title from Sam Mendes when he drops his Spectre bomb in November remains to be seen. Then there’s new Star Wars movie The Force Awakens, coming in December, to contend with.

Josh Whedon’s Age of Ultron is on course to top the achievements of Avengers Assemble, which took £51.9 million in the UK in 2012.

Avengers: Age of Ultron was released in UK cinemas last Thursday 23 April.