Iron Man 3 on course to beat Avengers at the box office

'Iron Man 3' is beating the blockbusting 'Avengers Assemble' for international box office takings.

The Marvel Studios sequel has so far scooped an eye-wateringly massive $195.3 million (£126m / €149m), beating the previous Marvel smash in 12 markets worldwide.

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'Avengers Assemble', which had a pretty stunning international opening itself, managed $185.1 million (£119m / €149m) on its opening weekend in 2012.

It has already become the number one film in every market, and has scored the biggest opening weekend of all time in Argentina, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.

In addition it's the biggest ever Marvel opening weekend in a swathe of countries, including Australia, Sweden, Norway, the Netherlands, Finland, Hungary, Romania, New Zealand and Argentina.

And the figure is set to keep on rising significantly.

The film has not yet opened in Germany, Russia and, crucially, China, which is expected to be a key territory for the movie.

Marvel has already delivered a specially edited version of the film for the Chinese market featuring extra footage shot in the country, and an exclusive guest appearance from Fan Bingbing, China's leading movie star.

It's also considered a Chinese co-production due to its hook-up with Beijing-based producer DMG Entertainment.

There's still a long way to go for it to top 'Avengers Assemble's vast takings, however. At the last count, Joss Whedon's all-star outing had taken over $1.5 billion (£966m / €1146m) worldwide.

It's currently the third highest grossing film of all time (behind 'Avatar' and 'Titanic').

But with reviews generally glowing, particularly for the irreverent return of Robert Downey Jr's Tony Stark, this could be another record-breaker for Kevin Feige's Marvel Studios.

The film also stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Sir Ben Kingsley, Guy Pearce and Rebecca Hall.