Johnny Depp's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has become the highest-grossing movie of the year so far in the US and Canada.

The Walt Disney sequel generated $62.2m during its second weekend, bringing the film's 10-day total to $258.2m, according to studio estimates.

That's enough to beat the previous top earner of 2006, X-Men: The Last Stand, which made $232m in eight weeks.

Directed by Gore Verbinski, Dead Man's Chest also stars Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom, Bill Nighy, Jack Davenport and Kevin McNally.

"The records continue to fall," said Dennis Rice, senior vice president at Disney.

Dennis Rice, Walt Disney: "Considering how big this movie opened, we're very pleased at how well it held."

"Considering how big this movie opened, we're very pleased at how well it held."

Dead Man's Chest has also taken an additional $125m at the international box office.

The original film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, generated $306m in the US and over $650m worldwide.

A third installment is currently in production.

Elsewhere in the US, comedy Little Man entered the cinema chart at number two with ticket sales of $21.7m.

Owen Wilson's comedy You, Me and Dupree debuted at number three, taking $21.3m between Friday and Sunday.

Superman Returns, which held the top spot before Dead Man's Chest, fell two places to fourth, with The Devil Wears Prada in fifth place.

The top 12 movies grossed $156m, down 5 per cent on the same weekend in 2005, when Depp also topped the cinema chart with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.