The last superhero release of the season acquitted itself well following generally positive reviews, teeing up next summer’s highly anticipated tag-team project The Avengers.

Chris Evans, who played Human Torch in two Fantastic Four films released by Fox, stars in the world war II action tale as a super-soldier who squares up against a renegade Nazi. Joe Johnston directed.

It remains to be seen whether the $65.8m generated by Captain America will be the biggest superhero launch of the summer. Thor is the one to beat on $67.5m and Paramount will issue confirmed data on Monday.

Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 may have exhausted cinema-goers during last weekend’s record North American debut and fell 72% on $48.1m for an excellent $274.2m after 10 days. The global tally through Warner Bros stands at $834.6m.

Screen Gems’ rom-com Friends With Benefits starring Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis debuted in third place on $18.5m. Transformers: Dark Of The Moon stands at $325.8m after four weekends and has amassed $882.3m globally.

Fox Searchlight release Sundance acquisition Another Earth from narrative feature debutant Mike Cahill, who directed and co-write the sci-fi drama with star Brit Marling. It grossed $78,400 from four for a terrific $19,600 average.

Next weekend’s wide releases are Cowboys & Aliens with Daniel Craig and Harrison Ford through Universal; Crazy, Stupid, Love. starring Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Julianne Moore and Emma Stone through Warner Bros and animated feature The Smurfs from Sony.

Estimated Top 10 North America Jul 22-24, 2011
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) Captain America: The First Avenger (Paramount/Marvel) PPI $65.8m –

2 (1) Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (Warner Bros) WBPI $48.1m $274.2m

3 (-) Friends With Benefits (Screen Gems) SPRI $18.5m –

4 (2) Transformers: Dark Of The Moon (Paramount) PPI $12m $325.8m

5 (3) Horrible Bosses (Warner Bros/New Line) WBPI $11.7m $82.4m

6 (4) Zookeeper (Sony/MGM) SPRI $8.7m $59.2m

7 (5) Cars 2 (Buena Vista/Pixar) WDSMPI $5.7m $176.4m

8 (6) Winnie The Pooh (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $5.1m $17.6m

9 (7) Bad Teacher (Sony) SPRI $2.6m $94.4m

10 (10) Midnight In Paris (SPC) Imagina $1.9m $44.9m

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