The weekend’s US box office race was won by The Maze Runner sequel, which easily fended off a challenge by the newly released Johnny Depp movie Black Mass to open at the top with an opening haul of $30.3 million.

The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials is the follow-up to the 2014 original, although it did not take as much in its opening weekend as its predecessor. Dylan O'Brien stars again in the lead, and it's the second in the series of young adult dystopian novel adaptations, the first instalment enjoyed a first weekend of $32.5 million roughly this time last year.

The Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials

Black Mass, which has been hailed by critics and the public as something of a return to form for Depp after more than a few commercial mis-steps like Mortdecai, Lone Rangers and Transcendence in the last couple of years, earned $23.4 million, enough to put it in second place. Depp portrays the murderous Boston gangster “Whitey” Bulger, and is supported by an impressive cast including Joel Edgerton, Kevin Bacon and Benedict Cumberbatch.

More: Movie review – ‘Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials’

Found-footage horror movie The Visit placed at number three in its second weekend with $11.3 million, and thriller The Perfect Guy was in fourth with a similarly impressive performance of $9.7 million having entered the charts last weekend.

The new Universal project Everest, telling the tale of the real-life events of the 1996 climbing disaster in which eight people lost their lives, opted for a limited premium format run at just 545 screens ahead of a wider release next week. It took an extremely healthy $7.6 million in the process, enough to put it in fifth and give the studio real hopes of topping the charts next weekend.

Captive, the new thriller starring Selma’s David Oyelowo and Kate Mara, played at just 800 locations throughout the US and therefore debuts outside the Top Ten, with $1.4 million.

More: ‘Game of Thrones’ actor Aidan Gillen cast as the villain in ‘Maze Runner’ sequel