The film, which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, knocked last week's top film Tomorrowland, which debuted with $40.7m (£26.7m), into third place.
Pitch Perfect 2 was at number two and Mad Max: Fury Road was fourth.
Avengers: Age of Ultron - 2015's biggest US film so far - was fifth.
The Marvel comic film has so far taken $427m (£280m) at the US box office.
Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros, which distributed San Andreas, said: "Some people felt they'd be a little nervous watching such a disaster hit both Los Angeles and San Francisco, but there was a curiosity factor."
Box office tracker Rentrak said it was also Johnson's biggest debut for a non-sequel as the top-billed actor. The film also features Kylie Minogue, as the sister of one of the key characters, Emma, played by Carla Gugino.
Cameron Crowe's rom-com Aloha, starring starring Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Rachel McAdams and Bill Murray was in sixth place.
Despite its stellar cast the film's reviews have not been particularly positive and it was in the spotlight last year after leaked emails from Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chair Amy Pascal said its script was "ridiculous".
Some native Hawaiian groups opposed the title; while an Asian-American group slated the use of a nearly all-white cast in a film shot in Hawaii.
Rory Bruer, Sony Pictures Entertainment's president of worldwide distribution, said the film did "well enough with women aged 25-34 to overcome the negative buzz", adding that the film, which took $10m (£6.5m), cost about $37m (£24m) to make.
So far this year, US and Canadian box office takings are up nearly 5% at $4.26bn (£2.8bn), while attendance is up more than 4%.
Earthquake disaster movie San Andreas has topped the US box office, taking $53.2m (£35m) over the weekend -  allaying fears that audiences in quake-prone regions would avoid seeing it.