Fourth and fifth place belonged to Mad Max: Fury Road ($13.6 million) and Avengers: Age of Ultron ($10.9 million).

Mexico delivered the top foreign total with $10 million at 3,100 screens for the second-biggest launch for a Warner Bros. title and the biggest ever opening for a disaster movie in the country. Globally, "Ultron" is up to $1.32 billion and has overtaken Disney’s animated hit "Frozen" as No. 6 on the all-time list.

Cameron Crowe’s romantic dramedy Aloha, the weekend’s other new offering, wasn’t so lucky despite its star-studded cast (Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone and Rachel McAdams). That brings its domestic total to $147 million and its worldwide to more than $228 million about double what the original movie made.

Wendy Ide from The Times: "It does not bode well when a movie that will sink or swim entirely on its CGI technology cannot even manage a convincingly Photoshopped family portrait".

Johnson is also part of the all-star ensemble in Furious 7, which continues to make an impact at the box office in 11th place for the weekend. Literally, probably not, and it may be true figuratively, too. But there’s no denying The Rock is on as roll. But, this report is all about "San Andreas". They mixed to give it a Rotten Tomatoes rating of simply 17 %.

Village Roadshow Footage co-financed and co-produced "San Andreas" with Warners for $110 million, with a lot of the movie lensing in Australia to benefit from authorities incentives.

Going in, "San Andreas" was looking at a $40-43 million win, but now that it has won with $53 million, domestically, now may be the time to see the over-achieving trend and ask why. If you do not really like or believe the characters in peril, it’s hard to root for their survival. No date has been set for the release of "Fury Road" in China.

So in relation to disaster movies of the past decade, I say, not as good as "The Day After Tomorrow," but better than "2012". Internationally, it has drawn in $165 million, giving it a 17-day worldwide run of $280.9 million.

Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson out-muscled the competitors at domestic film theaters because the earthquake epic "San Andreas" hauled in an estimated $ fifty three. And the makers of "Earthquake" were gutsy enough to provide a 1970's-style downer finale when the top-billed Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner were swept away in a flooded sewer.

SAN ANDREAS. Director Brad Peyton and star Carla Gugino. Exit polling by Warner Bros. revealed an audience that was 51 percent female. However, positive word-of-mouth and a strong score of A-minus on audience polling firm CinemaScore likely helped the film get a boost. Audiences graded it an anemic B- on CinemaScore.com.

Tomorrowland, directed by Brad Bird and starring George Clooney, took third with $13.8 million after a lukewarm win last weekend. The Barden Bellas are on their way to crossing the $200 mark at the domestic box-office. But the arrival of Universal’s "Jurassic World" on Friday should reverse that trend.