Spider-Man 2 breaks movie record

Tobey Maguire reprises his role as Spider-Man in the superhero sequel

Spider-Man 2 has broken the North American box office record by taking $180.1m (£97.5m) in its first six days.

The superhero sequel passed the $146.7m (£79.3m) that The Matrix Reloaded took in its first six days last year, said box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

It also beat the four-day holiday record of Shrek 2, which took $95.6m (£51.7m) on US Memorial Weekend in May.

The film, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, is due to open in the UK on 15 July.

TOP FIVE NORTH AMERICAN FILMS 1 Spider-Man 2 2 Fahrenheit 9/11 3 White Chicks 4 Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story 5 The Terminal Source: Exhibitor Relations

Spider-Man 2 distributor Sony hopes it will cross the $200m (£108m) mark on Wednesday, its eighth day of US release.

This would beat the record pace of 2002's original Spider-Man film, which hit that mark in nine days.

In barely a week, Spider-Man 2 will have taken about half of the $403.7m (£218m) total that the first movie grossed during a US cinema run of nearly four months.

The previous weekend's top movie, Michael Moore's documentary Fahrenheit 9/11, finished in second place, taking $22m (£11.9m) at North American cinemas from Friday until Monday.

Fahrenheit 9/11 is now being shown on 1,725 US cinemas, and has taken more than $55m (£30.5m) in the US since its 23 June release.