The new Star Trek film has rocketed to the top of the North American box office chart, early figures show.

Director JJ Abrams' prequel to the sci-fi franchise took an estimated $76.5m (£50.3m) in its opening weekend, easily beating its nearest rival.

The figure far surpasses the opening totals of the previous 10 Trek films.

Star Trek's impressive opening pushed previous chart-topper X-Men Origins: Wolverine down to second place, with takings of $27m (£17.7m).

But the comic book hero movie still ranks as the biggest film opening so far this year, taking $85m (£56m) in its first weekend.

Star Trek, which stars newcomer Chris Pine in the lead role, reveals the back stories of Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and the rest of the crew of the USS Enterprise.

Paramount Pictures had estimated that the movie would make about $50m (£33m) for the weekend, but hoped strong reviews would help carry it to a bigger opening.

Vice chairman Rob Moore said he expected the movie, which had a $140m (£92.3m) budget, should gross over $200m (£132m) total this summer, even with competition like Terminator: Salvation and Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince being released in cinemas soon.

The rest of the films in the top five all shuffled down one place to make way for the sci-fi blockbuster.

Romantic comedy Ghosts of Girlfriends Past was at three, with Beyonce thriller Obsessed at four and Zac Efron comedy 17 Again at five.

The only other new nationwide release, comic crime tale Next Day Air, opened at number six with $4m (£2.6m).