The Japanese poster for "The Wolverine"

Although its $55 million domestic opening was less than analysts were expecting, "The Wolverine" more than made up for it overseas, with an opening weekend take of $141 million worldwide. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the latest film in the "X-Men" franchise covered its production costs of $120 million and is the strongest opening ever for an X-Men title internationally.

Directed by James Mangold, "The Wolverine" stars Hugh Jackman, Tao Okamoto, Will Yun Lee, Svetlana Khodchenkova and Hiroyuki Sanada.

Domestically, its $55 million put it slightly ahead of "X-Men: First Class," which earned $54 million in its opening weekend two years ago. And it's well behind the $85 million that "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" opened to in May of 2009. It's $55 million put it well ahead of the rest of the box office, beating out "The Conjuring," which landed at No. 2 with $22.1 million.

In other comics-to-movie news, "R.I.P.D.," the supernatural comedy based on Dark Horse's 2000 comic series, fell to No. 9 domestically and brought in $5.9 million. "Red 2," the sequel to the film based on the Warren Ellis/Cully Hamner comic of the same name, landed at No. 6 with $9.4 million.