'Captain America' sets box office record as it leaps past 'Noah'

[April 07, 2014]  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)

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