USA TODAY International Edition
‘ Man of Steel’ crushes June record
$ 113M opening means Superman will return
Look, up in the sky! It’s a franchise reborn.
After a failed attempt to revive the Superman series in 2006, the son of Krypton finally took off in theaters as Man of Steel snared $ 113.1 million this weekend, according to studio estimates from box- office trackers Hollywood. com.
Man of Steel scored the highest debut on record for a movie opening in June. It beat 2010’ s Toy Story 3, which opened to $ 110.3 million.
The debut was $ 25 million more than most analysts forecast and gave the series plenty of momentum for a sequel, which Warner Bros. announced last week, though a release date hasn’t been set. The movie, which opened Thursday, has earned $ 125.1 million in four days.
Analysts say the nine- figure performance probably would give the studio enough reason to justify a tril- ogy. “Anything over $ 100 million means the franchise is back,” says Jeff Bock of Exhibitor Relations. “The studio gave the movie the right tone for today’s audiences: something dark.”
The debut dwarfs the opening of 2006’ s Superman Returns, the $ 270 million Bryan Singer film meant to resuscitate the franchise. And though that film would go on to make $ 200 million, the movie left critics and fanboys wanting, and the series went back into the studio vault.
This time around, director Zack Snyder and star Henry Cavill scored with audiences, if not critics.
Though reviewers were split on the $ 225 million movie — 57% gave it a thumbs- up, say pollsters Rotten tomatoes. com — 82% of moviegoers liked it, the site says.
Distributor Warner Bros. ensured that the film would rack up premium surcharges, because 80% of the theaters showing the movie were in 3- D and IMAX.
The Seth Rogen comedy This Is the End collected $ 20.5 million, good for second place and eclipsing most analysts’ projections, which hovered around $ 15 million. Now You See Me took third place with $ 10.3 million. Final figures are due today.