In an interview with talk show host Oprah Winfrey ahead of the release, the 26-year-old Zuckerberg dismissed the movie as a work of fiction and said his life is just “not that dramatic.”

“The last six years have been a lot of coding and focus and hard work, but maybe it will be fun to remember it as partying and all this crazy drama,” he said.

“The Social Network,” which stars Jesse Eisenberg as Zuckerberg and pop star Justin Timberlake as Napster founder Sean Parker, Zuckerberg’s mentor, topped the box office on its opening weekend in North America, raking in nearly US$23 million (S$30 million).

Jesse Eisenberg (right) with Justin Timberlake in a movie still.

The movie is based on the book “The Accidental Billionaires” by Ben Mezrich and its take on the murky creation of Facebook.

“The Social Network” opens with a 19-year-old Zuckerberg being dumped by his girlfriend and taking refuge at his dorm room computer, setting in motion the disputed events leading to the creation of Facebook.

Twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were upper classmen at the time and their version of the story is they enlisted Zuckerberg to write software code for a date-finding website called Harvard Connection.

The Winklevosses, handsome world-class rowers from a wealthy blue-blood family, accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea and launching Facebook in February 2004 instead of holding up his end of the deal.