`Iron Man 3` tops weekend box office with second-best film opening of $175.3m

New York: Superhero film `Iron Man 3` got off to a massive start this weekend with a box office haul of 175.3 million dollars and in the process had the second biggest film opening of all time in the US.

According to Disney, combined with international sales, the film brought its total earnings to 680.1million dollars, the New York Daily News reported. The movie stars Robert Downey Jr. as the billionaire businessman Tony Stark, whose superhero alter-ego spars with an evil extremist. `Avengers` holds the opening record with 207.4 million dollars over its first three days. Previous two instalments of `Iron Man` earned a total of 1.2 billion dollars across the world, the Box Office Mojo website reported. Last week`s winner, dark action comedy `Pain and Gain,` dropped to second place with 7.6 million dollars whereas baseball drama `42` took number three place with 6.2 million dollars. Rounding out the top five was Tom Cruise`s post-apocalyptic thriller `Oblivion` that has earned 5.79 million dollars, and the animated film `The Croods` grossed 4.2 million dollars. Top ten movies this weekend are: 1. ` Iron Man 3` - 175 million dollars 2. `Pain and Gain` - 7.6 million dollars 3. `42` - 6.2 million dollars 4. `Oblivion` - 5.8 million dollars 5. `The Croods` - 4.2 million dollars 6. `The Big Wedding` - 3.9 million dollars 7. `Mud` - 2.2 million dollars 8. `Oz the Great and Powerful` - 1.8 million dollars 9. `Scary Movie 5` - 1.4 million dollars 10. `The Place Beyond the Pines` - 1.3 million dollars ANI