Captain Marvel smashes record for highest global opening weekend for female-led film

The superhero origin story earned $455m worldwide over the weekend

Captain Marvel has scored the highest-ever global opening weekend for a female-led film.

The superhero origin story earned $455m worldwide over the weekend, according to The Hollywood Reporter, making it the sixth-best worldwide opening in history.

It earned $153m in North America and $302m overseas, also making it the fifth-best foreign opening, behind The Fate of the Furious, Avengers: Infinity War, Jurassic World, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2.

The film, starring Brie Larson, is the first female-led film of Disney’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the seventh-biggest debut of the MCU behind the three Avengers films, Black Panther, Captain America: Civil War, and Iron Man 3, not adjusted for inflation.

Captain Marvel’s performance at the box office has been held up as further proof that the idea that female-led films do not perform well overseas is a mere myth. Wonder Woman earned $103m in North America on its opening weekend, going on to earn $821.8m globally.

The film sees Larson star as Carol Danvers, a US Air Force fighter pilot who, through mysterious circumstances, becomes imbued with special powers.