LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," the sequel to Marvel's 2011 film about the Red, White and Blue super hero, smashed its way to $96.2 million in weekend ticket sales, setting a new record for an April release and speeding past last week's winner, "Noah."
The film, which stars Chris Evans as a scrawny World War Two reject given super powers from an experimental serum, easily exceeded the April take for the racing movie "Fast Five," which collected $86.2 million in ticket sales in April 2011.
"Noah," starring Russell Crowe as the biblical figure, was second with $17 million in ticket sales from Friday to Sunday, and has collected $72.3 million in overall domestic sales since opening last week, according to studio estimates.
The dystopian action film "Divergent" was third with $13 million, for a total of $114 million since its March 21 release in U.S. and Canadian theaters.
"Captain America: The Winter Soldier" was distributed by Walt Disney. Paramount, a unit of Viacom, released "Noah." "Divergent" was released by Lionsgate.
(Reporting By Ronald Grover and Chris Michaud; Editing by Kevin Liffey)