Producer Jerry Bruckheimer said the takings exceeded his expectations

The film took an estimated $132m (£71m) in its first three days, beating the previous best debut of $115m (£62m), set by Spider-Man in 2002.

It generated almost three times the opening weekend total of the original Pirates film - also with Johnny Depp and Keira Knightley - two years ago.

Last weekend's top release, Superman Returns, fell to number two.

The superhero's comeback took $21.9m (£11.8m), down 58% from last week.

NORTH AMERICAN TOP 10 1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest 2. Superman Returns 3. The Devil Wears Prada 4. Click 5. Cars 6. Nacho Libre 7. The Lake House 8. The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift 9. Waist Deep 10. The Break-Up Source: Exhibitor Relations

Disney - which released Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest - said it had received reports of continuous sell-outs for the film, with requests to add screens at multiplexes.

The sequel also set records on Friday for the best single-day total with $55.5m (£30m) and on Saturday as the fastest movie to reach $100m (£54m).

"When people in the industry predicted these high numbers, I thought they were just trying to be mean," producer Jerry Bruckheimer told the AP news agency.

"No matter how good we did, if we did $100m, we'd be failures. I didn't think we'd get near these numbers."

The first film, The Curse of the Black Pearl, made $654m (£353m) and earned Depp an Oscar nomination. A third instalment is currently in production.