‘The Wolverine’ leads US box office…

The Wolverine has debuted at the top of the US box office.

The Hugh Jackman-starring X-Men spinoff earned $55 million in its first weekend on release. It was outgrossed by 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine, which took $85 million on release in 2009, but emerged level with X-Men: First Class‘s debut domestic weekend.

Supernatural horror The Conjuring dropped to second place, followed by animated sequel Despicable Me 2.

Turbo and Grown Ups 2 also shifted down a spot to numbers four and five respectively, as did Red 2 and Guillermo del Toro sci-fi Pacific Rim.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy’s The Heat holds firm in eighth place, while R.I.P.D falls two places to nine.

Sundance hit Fruitvale Station, meanwhile, jumps seven places to ten after going on wider release.

The top ten in full:
1. (-) The Wolverine – $55 million
2. (1) The Conjuring – $22.13 million
3. (2) Despicable Me 2 – $16.024 million
4. (3) Turbo – $13.325 million
5. (4) Grown Ups 2 – $11.5 million
6. (5) Red 2 – $9.4 million
7. (6) Pacific Rim – $7.54 million
8. (8) The Heat – $6.85 million
9. (7) R.I.P.D. – $5.857 million
10. (17) Fruitvale Station – $4.657 million