It’s a bird! It’s a plane! No, it’s a massive hit for Warner Bros. this Father’s Day weekend. The Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot “Man of Steel” is set to rake in a bit over $113 million ($125 million if you include the Walmart screenings on Thursday night), making it the largest June opening of all time (not adjusting for inflation, it beats out former record-holder ‘Toy Story 3‘ that made $110.3 million), the 18th opening in general of all time, and 4th for non-sequel openings. As it stands, the film has made more than the next 4 films on this list combined. A remarkable amount of the revenue came from technologically enhanced screenings, 12% from IMAX theaters and 41% from 3D theaters. Considering that the last reboot was only 7 years ago and somewhat lackluster in the box office, this was a gamble for Warner Bros. that they won luckily in spades with the team of Snyder, producer Christopher Nolan and screenwriter David S. Goyer along with a cast comprising of Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, and Michael Shannon. Check out our review here.
In second place with $20.5 million for the weekend, the meta-apocalypse comedy “This Is The End” is still standing, even up against Superman himself. Starring Seth Rogen, James Franco, Jonah Hill, Craig Robinson, Jay Baruchel, and Danny McBride as fictional versions of themselves along with a massive string of cameos. With an opening weekend of $20.5 million and its Wednesday and Thursday screenings tallying in at $12.3 million, the film has made back its $32 million budget within its first week. Check out our review here.
In third place with $10.3 million, “Now You See” has maintained its position, which had the least shift of only 46% down in revenue. Dropping two spots is “Fast & Furious 6,” which made over $9.4 million this weekend and is now the most highest-grossing installment of the series, with a running total of over $219 million domestically and $636.9 million in total. “The Purge” has been purged from its lofty first place position and is now in fifth, having made a mere $8.2 million this weekend (mere in comparison to the $34 million last weekend) and ticket sales dropping 83%. In sixth, “The Internship” still hasn’t been hired, pulling in $7 million, making last weekend’s disappointing $18.1 million look minted. The kid-friendly “Epic” is still on the board with $6 million and in seventh, but we suspect it will be blown off when “Monsters University” is released next weekend. Rounding out eighth, ninth and tenth spots with some measly low seven-figure numbers for the weekend, we have “Star Trek Into Darkness,” “After Earth,” and “Iron Man 3” (which could be breaking the $400 million mark soon as current estimates put it at $399.6 million), knocking off “The Hangover Part III” and “The Great Gatsby” from the top ten.
As for specialty box office, Sofia Coppola’s “The Bling Ring” made some real bling (pardon the wordplay, but we couldn’t resist). For its opening weekend, ‘Bling Ring’ opened in 5 theaters and raked in $210,001, averaging an incredible $42,000 per theater and marking Coppola’s most successful opening since “Lost in Translation.” Almost too fittingly, Morgan Neville‘s “20 Feet From Stardom” debut trails behind ‘Bling Ring.’ The Sundance hit documentary about a backup singer opened at 3 theaters and made $52,211, averaging $17,404 per theater. In its second week, Joss Whedon‘s “Much Ado About Nothing” is still going strong making $162,580 at 23 theaters (expanding from 5 last weekend), averaging $7,068 per theater. In its third week, Margarethe von Trotta‘s “Hannah Arendt” about the German-American philosopher and political theorist made $26,509 at 6 theaters, averaging $4,419 per theater. In its second week, Rick Rowley‘s “war on terror” doc “Dirty Wars” made $50,400 at 12 theaters (expanding from 4 last weekend), averaging $3,600 per theater.
1. Man Of Steel (Warner Bros.) – $113,080,000
2. This Is The End (Sony) – $20,500,000
3. Now You See Me (Lionsgate) – $10,320,000 ($80,009,000)
4. Fast & Furious 6 (Universal) – $9,433,000 ($219,574,000)
5. The Purge (Universal) – $8,201,000 ($51,845,000)
6. The Internship (Fox) – $7,000,000 ($30,951,000)
7. Epic (Fox) – $6,000,000 ($95,429,000)
8. Star Trek Into Darkness (Paramount) – $5,660,000 ($210,491,000)
9. After Earth (Sony) – $3,750,000 ($54,200,000)
10. Iron Man 3 (Disney) – $2,908,000 ($399,610,000)