Bradley Cooper never expected 'The Hangover 2' to be so successful.

The actor - who played the part of Phil in the first two instalments -revealed he was shocked when director Todd Philips informed him that it was the highest grossing comedy of all time, but admitted he does prefer it to the first movie.

He told Irish TV show 'Xpose': "Todd Philips knew all the numbers and he was speculating that it would do well but we never thought it would become the highest grossing comedy of all time. I prefer the sequel definitely, I think it's much better than the first one."

Bradley previously revealed he is keen to get to work on the third in the franchise, and doesn't think it will follow the same path as the previous films.

He said: "I personally want to do it. I hope we're going to start shooting in September.

"We adhered to the formula in the second one, for those of you who've seen it, and the third one, which would close the whole, sort of, trilogy, which now it would be a trilogy - even though we thought we would never make a second one, let alone anybody see the first one.

"I think it will take place in Los Angeles and maybe not adhere to the structure. It might be different."

"I'll do whatever Todd wants to do, he's the best, he's the greatest. And I love those guys and I love my character Phil so I would do it in a heartbeat.

"The second movie was the hardest I've ever done but I just love it. There's got to be a trilogy, you've got to close it up."