The superpowers of the Fantastic Four boosted the US box office out of its recent slump with a better-than-expected performance on its opening weekend. The Fox cartoon adaptation earned $56m (£32m) over the three-day weekend, more than enough to claim the number one spot. Executives at Fox have admitted that they had expected the film to earn around $30m (£17m).

Directed by Tim Story, Fantastic Four tells the tale of a quartet of do-gooding superheroes who battle a masked megalomaniac. It opened to a storm of negative reviews, but has so far proved critic-proof. "I don't think the reviewers are writing to the audience anymore," Fox president Hutch Parker lamented to CNN. "They're writing ... almost academic letters to each other."

All told, the weekend provided good news for Hollywood, ending a run of recent poor form. The top 12 films boasted a combined earning power of $141m (£81m), up 2% on the same period last year.

Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds fell to number two, earning $31.3m (£18m) over the weekend. Also dropping a single spot was Batman Begins, which took $10.2m (£5.9m). Dark Water, Walter Salles's English-language overhaul of the Japanese horror classic, was the week's second highest new entry at number four ($10.1m). Mr and Mrs Smith fell two places to five after taking $7.9m (£4.5m).