A whole lot of superheroes added up to a whole lot of ticket sales. The superhero smorgasbord Avengers: Infinity Wars opened with predictable shock-and-awe both here and overseas.

At the local box office Marvel's latest earned a supersized $3,879,902, giving the movie the second highest opening weekend in New Zealand history.

That wasn't enough to claim the top spot in the record books from Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which enjoyed a $4.5 million opening weekend here back in 2015.

Overseas, however, the force was not with the Jedi. The Avengers managed to edge past Star Wars by pulling in US$258.2 million (NZ$366.68m) over the weekend and setting a new record for the highest opening weekend of all-time.

Infinity War, which brings together some two dozen superheroes in the 10-year culmination of Marvel Studio's "cinematic universe," also set a new global opening record with $630 million even though it's yet to open in China, the world's second-largest movie market. It opens there May 11.

According to the Walt Disney Co's estimates, Infinity War overwhelmed the previous global best (The Fate of the Furious with $541.9 million) but narrowly topped The Force Awakens in North America. The Star Wars reboot debuted with US$248 million in 2015, which would translate to about $260 million accounting for inflation.

But both intergalactic behemoths belong to Disney, which now owns nine of the top 10 opening weekends ever — six belonging to Marvel releases. That includes Black Panther, which has grossed $1.3 billion since opening in February and still managed to rank fifth at this weekend's box office, thanks partially to Marvel fans self-programming a double-feature.

The track record for Marvel, along with the hyper, extravagant effort put into the long-planned Infinity War, made the record-setting weekend something of a fait accompli. After ten years, 18 prior films and some $15 billion in box office, the weekend was an assured and long-awaited coronation for Kevin Feige's Marvel, the most dominant force in a Hollywood with precious few sure things.

"To have now the biggest movie of domestic history as one of the Marvel cinematic universe films seems like a fitting tribute to the Marvel Studios team which has had just an astounding, unmatched run in the last decade," said Dave Hollis, head of distribution for Disney.

By any measure, the 2-hour-and-40 minute-long Infinity War is one of the largest films ever assembled. With a production budget reportedly almost $300 million, Joe and Anthony Russo's film brings together the stars of Marvel's superhero stable, including Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man, Chris Hemsworth's Thor, Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther, Chris Evans' Captain America, Mark Ruffalo's Hulk, and many more.

- with content from AP