UPDATE: The film pulled in $37 million on Saturday, with the domestic opening weekend estimate now rising to $123 million.
ORIGINAL: James Gunn’s “Superman” has finally delivered an opening weekend hit after a run of DC titles that failed at launch.
After incredibly strong previews of $22.5 million on Thursday, “Superman” made an additional $34 million on Friday. As a result, the title is now headed for a $115-120 million domestic opening weekend.
That’s on par with Zack Snyder’s “Man of Steel” ($116.6m) back in 2013 and with Gunn’s last directorial effort “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” ($118.4m).
One key difference in the twelve years since “Man of Steel” is that the superhero bubble has burst. DC titles in particular have seen a number of high-profile flops in recent years, with no DC title since “Wonder Woman” back in 2017 debuting to over $100 million.
The more recent titles all bombed on arrival including “Black Adam” ($67m opening weekend), “The Flash” ($55m), “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” ($30m), “Blue Beetle” ($25m) and “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom” ($28m).
Even Marvel has had its struggles of late with OK domestic starts for “Thunderbolts*” ($74.3m) and “Captain America: Brave New World” ($88.8m) this year.
Armed with a solid A- CinemaScore (same as “Man of Steel”), “Superman” is headed for the best domestic debut for a DC title since David Ayer’s much hyped “Suicide Squad” in 2016 opened to $133 million.
It is also only the third studio film this year to debut to over $100 million after “A Minecraft Movie” and “Lilo & Stitch”.
Internationally the film is looking to pull in around $90-95 million with estimates now being a worldwide debut weekend of aroind $210 million. The title is reportedly not doing great in Asian markets where it wasn’t expected to get much traction anyway.
Exit polls reportedly indicate the film is skewing two-thirds male and two-thirds under 35, suggesting it is pulling in young audiences.
“Jurassic World Rebirth” is set for a $39 million second weekend domestically and is looking to clear $400 million worldwide by end of Sunday. “F1” is coming in third domestically with a further $10 million while its global haul was $358.3 million by Friday.
Source: THR
