Iron Man 3 has fought off competition from The Great Gatsby to remain at number one as it is close to passing the $1 billion mark.
The superhero movie, starring Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man, stayed at the top of the box office for a second week running taking an extra $72.5m (£47m).
Baz Luhrmann’s new adaptation of the F Scott Fitzgerald’s classic novel shot in at number two with $51m (£33m).
Michael Bay’s crime drama Pain and Gain is at three while Tyler Perry’s comedy Peeples debuted at four.
Baseball drama 42 rounds out the top five.
Meanwhile, Iron Man 3 is nearing the £1 billion mark with having taken $949m (£617m) worldwide and $284.9m (£185.4m) in the US after being on release for 10 days.
Paul Dergarabedian, a box office analyst for Hollywood.com told the BBC: ‘In less than three weeks, this thing is honing in on a billion dollars. It’s just a testament to the incredible popularity of this character.’
The US box office top 10 (studio estimates):
1. (1) Iron Man 3 – $72,472,000
2 (-) The Great Gatsby – $51,115,000
3. (2) Pain & Gain – $5,000,000
4. (-) Tyler Perry Presents Peeples – $4,850,000
5. (3) 42 – $4,650,000
6. (4) Oblivion – $3,864,000
7. (5) The Croods – $3,600,000
8. (6) The Big Wedding – $2,500,000
9. (7) Mud – $2,343,000
10. (8) Oz the Great and Powerful – $802,000
