It was the second-best February debut ever behind the $58 million opening of Hannibal two years ago. Daredevil had the biggest haul ever for a movie opening over President's Day weekend, easily surpassing the previous best of $20.3 million for last year's John Q.

The previous weekend's No. 1 movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, fell to second place but held strongly with $19 million, pushing its 10-day total to $47.7 million.

Riding the wave of its leading 13 Academy Awards nominations last week, the musical Chicago expanded to more theaters and took in $12.6 million, remaining in third place and pushing its two-month total to $80.7 million.

Disney's animated sequel The Jungle Book 2 opened in fourth place with $11.9 million.

Playing in 3,471 theaters, Daredevil averaged a strong $12,532 a cinema, compared with $4,238 in 2,808 theaters for the weekend's other new movie, The Jungle Book 2.