WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — “Avengers: Infinity War” dominated the North American box office for a third straight weekend, raking in US$61.8 million as it easily fended off competition, industry estimates showed Sunday.

The Disney blockbuster, featuring a string of Marvel superheroes out to save the universe from powerful purple alien Thanos (Josh Brolin), has had a cumulative take over three weeks of US$547.8 million, according to box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Returning to their Marvel roles are Robert Downey Jr as Iron Man, Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Chris Hemsworth as Thor.

Running a distant second was “Life of the Party,” a Melissa McCarthy comedy that rang up a respectable US$18.5 million its first weekend out.

McCarthy, who co-wrote the script with director Ben Falcone, stars as a newly divorced mother who returns to college, only to find herself in class with her daughter.

Another new film, “Breaking In,” a thriller starring Gabrielle Union, was third at US$16.8 million.

Review website Rotten Tomatoes dismissed the film as a “rote, disposable action thriller” but praised Union’s performance as a mother fighting to save her children from criminal hostage-takers.

Rom-com “Overboard” slipped from second to fourth place with a box office take of US$10.1 million its second weekend in theatres. The Lionsgate remake, starring Anna Faris and Eugenio Debez, is about a struggling single mother who persuades a rich playboy with amnesia that they are married.

Number five at the box office was Paramount’s sci-fi horror film “A Quiet Place,” which stars actor-director John Krasinski and his real-life wife Emily Blunt as a couple silently struggling to protect their family from blind aliens that track their prey by sound. It made an estimated US$6.4 million.

Rounding out the top ten were:

“I Feel Pretty” (US$3.71 million)

“Rampage” (US$3.38 million)

“Tully” (US$2.24 million)

“Black Panther” (US1.932 million)

“RBG” (US$1.165)