Sitcom spin-off movie The Inbetweeners 2 has broken box office records for a comedy film.

The sequel to 2011's The Inbetweeners Movie took more than £2.75 million at the box office yesterday, its opening day. The earlier movie made £2.58m.

Showing in 495 cinema screens across the UK, the film sequel rose to become the third largest ever Wednesday-opening film in British box office history, beaten only by Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince and Lord of the Rings: Return of the King.

With the tag line "four reasons to get out of Australia", the new film sees characters Will, Simon, Jay and Neil head on holiday down-under, wreaking a mix of typically embarrassing havoc and immaturity wherever they go.

Spinning off from E4 comedy series The Inbetweeners, the movie reunites Simon Bird, Joe Thomas, James Buckley and Blake Harrison as the mismatched late-teens friendship group, and sees the show's creator-writer duo of Iain Morris and Damon Beesley direct.

As well as breaking records, the new film has opened to universally positive reviews, with many critics calling it a funnier film than the original 2011 big-screen adventure, which saw the quartet on holiday in Crete.

The Telegraph described the film as "hysterically funny", whilst The Independent said the film was "intermittently hilarious and unremittingly crude".

The Inbetweeners Movie went on to set a record for a comedy film, with the highest-grossing ever opening weekend, taking £13 million. Following international sales as well as DVD and Blu-ray releases, it is to date believed to have made £58 million.

The Inbetweeners 2 is understood to have been produced on a budget of just £5 million.

Here is the trailer for the new film: