Iron Man and Captain America battle head to head in the latest blockbuster film from the Marvel comics stable but it's really the box office – and parent company Disney – that won this opening weekend. Captain America: Civil War raked in $181.8 million, topping fellow Marvel movie spinoff Iron Man 3, which garnered $174 million on its opening weekend in 2013.

The figure effectively bumps Iron Man 3 out of its previous ranking, with Captain America: Civil War racking up the fifth-highest grossing weekend in movie watching history. It continues the momentum that is solidifying the Disney/Marvel juggernaut's dominance of the box office worldwide.

Iron Man 3 vs Captain America – The Figures

As reported in Forbes, box office figures for Captain America: Civil War include $75.253 million for the Thursday night preview and Friday's opening day alone. That take beats Iron Man 3's $68.8 million sales for opening day, which also includes the preview evening's take. Saturday's ticket sales added up to $61 million, making it the fifth highest Saturday box office of all time. The $181.8 million figure represents an estimate for the whole weekend, with the final box office figures for Captain America: Civil War to be confirmed on Monday.

As compared to the other top five weekends in movie history – populated largely by comic book and fantasy films – Captain America: Civil War's box office is also well ahead of Batman v Superman at $166 million and just behind Avengers: Age of Ultron's opening weekend of $191 million. Captain America: Civil War's take for the weekend dominated the total weekend's ticket sales as per comScore, the industry standard for audience measurement. As reported in Deadline Hollywood, Captain America: Civil War captured 77 percent of the total weekend's total ticket sales of $235 million.

The Marvel – Disney Marriage

Captain America: Civil War is another heavy hitter in a string of successes for Marvel Entertainment, LLC and The Walt Disney Company, which has been its home since 2009. Disney's distribution chief Dave Hollis is quoted in a Deadline article.

"When you think of the storied nature of the film business and that four of the top six (domestic) openings of all-time come out of the Marvel universe within an eight-year period — that's 13 movies combined for nearly $10 billion worth of box office – it's a testament to the entire creative team at Marvel Studios led by Kevin Feige. They've established an interlocking universe that's unprecedented and unparalleled in entertainment today with a collection of gifted filmmakers and talent who are invested in the overarching vision of the MCU."

Captain America: Civil War is scoring highly positive with audiences, meaning the movie has legs, as they say in the industry. Based on this weekend's momentum, it may gross as much as $1 billion worldwide within a couple of weeks. With production costs of $250 million, the movie represents another profitable entry in the Marvel films franchise.Iron Man, Captain America and the Marvel Universe

While the Iron Man 4 movie is still up in the air, the Iron Man character, however, is rumored to have a role in the next Spider-man film as young Peter Parker's mentor. Just before Captain America: Civil War's release on Friday, Vox magazine conducted a poll comparing the two superheroes. While most of the respondents seemed to prefer the character and superhero moral qualities of Captain America, a majority of the people questioned preferred Iron Man's costume and more than 40 percent thought that Iron Man would kick Captain America's butt in a one-on-one battle on the ground – but not at the box office.

[Image via Marvel Studios]