Deftones

So, according to box office mojo, Superman made $25 million yesterday. Not a terrible Wednesday opening by any means, but certainly not anywhere near a record, IIRC.

DRG

I'm seeing $21 million at Mojo. Either way, it's too early to tell if that is good or bad news. You've got Shrek 2 opening on a Wednesday at $11,786,415 and ending with $441,226,247 total; and you've got Pirates of the Caribbean opening on a Wednesday at $13,509,262 and ending with $305,413,918 total. On the other hand you've got you've got Matrix Revolutions opening on a Wednesday at $24,311,365 and ending with $139,313,948 total. The holiday weekend and word of mouth will be key.

matome

Yep, $21,037,277 to be exact.

Hokeyboy

I have a feeling its really going to clean up over the weekend. 4th of July + Superman + people with both Monday and Tuesday off = I think it should easily clear $150 million after its first week in theaters.

Jackskeleton

Yeah, it being fourth of july weekend and even being an extended weekend as it is.. there's no way that this can really drop that much. It doesn't have the matrix bad word of mouth and it has the appeal of being superman.

Mr. Cinema

It needs to make as much as possible before next Friday because we all know POTC2 will open huge. $21 million yesterday is a great start I think. It'll likely drop today a little. Probably still make hopefully around $13 or $14 million and then have a huge weekend. I think it'll make close to or more than $70 million this weekend, which would give it a 5-day of over $100 million. I think it can tack on about $30 million for Monday and Tuesday for a $130 million take over 7 days. I'm guessing this will end with at least $225 million, but if word-of-mouth is strong and Pirates gets tiresome really quickly, it could do much more. Let's hope anyways.

The Antipodean

Just watching the "Pirates" trailer wears me out (I liked but didn't love the original, and basically if it weren't for Depp wouldn't even have liked it). On the other hand, I'm eager to see "Superman Returns" again already.

Deftones

Woops. You are right. It was 21 million. My mistake.

PopcornTreeCt

The one line that stuck out was "Truth, justice, and all that stuff" The newspaper guy cuts off at "American Way" Obviously this film is now considered Anti-American and coming out on July 4th only spells doom for it.

Now, I'm only half-joking but some reviewers are actually pointing that out. So, my final prediction word-of-mouth =

Mr. Cinema

Friday's numbers, from Showbizdata. Superman's Friday number is a million more than Batman Begins' first Friday. I hope it sees a boost today. Looks like it'll be around a $50 million 3-day weekend. War of the Worlds' first Friday was $21.9 million.

1. SUPERMAN RETURNS WARNER BROS. 3,915 16,210,000 4,140 n/a 48,268,444
2. DEVIL WEARS PRADA, THE 20TH CENTURY FOX 2,847 9,479,000 3,329 n/a 9,479,000
3. CLICK PARAMOUNT 3,749 6,235,000 1,663 -56% 64,752,522
4. CARS BUENA VISTA 3,706 4,038,000 1,090 -37% 172,059,783
5. NACHO LIBRE PARAMOUNT 3,082 1,812,000 588 -53% 60,585,173
6. LAKE HOUSE, THE WARNER BROS. 2,645 1,433,000 542 -50% 35,725,472
7. FAST AND THE FURIOUS, THE: TOKYO DRIFT UNIVERSAL 2,666 1,345,000 505 -58% 48,215,240
8. WAIST DEEP FOCUS FEATURES 1,006 1,010,000 1,004 -69% 12,859,180
9. BREAK-UP, THE UNIVERSA 1,906 869,000 456 -56% 108,134,000
10. DA VINCI CODE, THE SONY 1,384 650,000 470 -40% 208,142,832

gotrice487

Mr. Cinema: Thanks for the figures! I thought Devil Wears Prada would flop badly but I was wrong

Terrell

Superman has never been really huge at the box office, even the first one. But I thought this film would do about the same as X3. Maybe the film can steady itself and show some good legs. I think it will pass 200 million domestically.

Superman is an incredibly popular, well-known superhero, as big as any. But I don't understand why it's not more successful at the box office. Of course it's still early.

Mr. Cinema

It's following Batman Begins' pattern almost exactly, at least through the first few days. That film ended up with $205 million, but it didn't have a behemoth like POTC 2 opening the following weekend. I hope word-of-mouth for SR is strong. I think it'll reach $200 million, but not zoom past it.

At least the franchise as been re-launched. We'll definitely see a sequel, regardless of what this makes. I mean, this film's budget includes McG, Brett Ratner, and Tim Burton's salaries.

Terrell

It's still incomprehensible how this film's budget ballooned so drastically out of control. For this film to cost well in excess of 300 million dollars is beyond ridiculous. Did the studio think this film was such a sure-fire mega blockbuster that they simply ignored the budget?

Mr. Cinema

I thought I read that all the money spent before Singer came aboard was about $50-$60 million (which included all the delayed production, etc). He claims the budget was $204 million. Then add in another $100 million possibly on ads, etc.

They must have been determined to get this franchise revived and I guess they were will to spend whatever it takes to do so.

Also, I think that airplane sequence was extremely expensive to shoot. That was a big chunk of the budget and some of the sets. It certainly wasn't on the actors as they didn't use anyone really high profile.

The Antipodean

What's curious to me this summer is the number of "BIG" movies that have been blasted after their first weekend for not living up to expectations -- movies that at the beginning of the summer you heard many media folk saying would be the biggest hits of the year, like "Cars," "Da Vinci Code" and "Superman." I don't know if it's insanely inflated expectations or what -- $300 million hits don't come along that often, really. The only one of this summer's hits that seems to have exceeded expectations is "X3," still the summer's top cash cow I think. Curious. Wonder if "POTC" will fall victim to this syndrome or not of having the bar set so high there's no way it can reach it?

TomOpus

It's interesting how many people keep forgetting about The DaVinci Code. It's over $700 million worldwide (#22 on that list).

The Antipodean

Yeah, but people in the U.S. only care about U.S. box office That's kind of what I was focusing on here.

If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say "Troy" was a huge bomb for instance despite it being a gi-normous international hit, I'd be Brad Pitt, except uglier.

Terrell

Yes, but was it anymore expensive than shooting a major action sequence on ROTS or LOTR? I somehow doubt it. Yet the budget for Superman Returns is almost 3 times as much as those budgets, according to reports I've read. I've seen a number of articles that put the costs of this film well in excess of 300 million dollars when marketing was included. That simply reeks of incredible excess and wastefulness. There's no reason this film had to cost more than 150 million dollars. Honestly, the box office take so far would have been respectable had the budget been more in line with typical summer tentpole films.

Jericho

The first film made $134 million domestically and $300 million total....in 1979. At the time it was one of the highest grossing movies ever. That's pretty huge. If you adjust for inflation, it ranks 59th all-time, not too shabby (http://www.boxofficemojo.com/alltime/adjusted.htm). Although it is slightly behind Batman and Spiderman 2 in adjusted gross

Bill Geiger

1 Titanic Par. $1,845.0
2 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King NL $1,118.9
3 Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone WB $976.5
4 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers NL $926.3
5 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace Fox $924.3
6 Shrek 2 DW $920.7
7 Jurassic Park Uni. $914.7
8 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire WB $892.2
9 Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets WB $876.7
10 The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring NL $871.4
11 Finding Nemo BV $864.6
12 Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith Fox $850.0
13 Spider-Man Sony $821.7
14 Independence Day Fox $817.0
15 E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Uni. $792.9
16 Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban WB $789.8
17 The Lion King BV $783.8
18 Spider-Man 2 Sony $783.8
19 Star Wars Fox $775.4
20 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe BV $744.1
21 The Matrix Reloaded WB $738.6
22 The Da Vinci Code Sony $703.5
23 Forrest Gump Par. $677.4
24 The Sixth Sense BV $672.8
25 Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl BV $653.9
26 Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones Fox $649.4
27 Ice Age: The Meltdown Fox $638.7
28 The Incredibles BV $631.4
29 The Lost World: Jurassic Park Uni. $618.6
30 The Passion of the Christ NM $611.9
31 War of the Worlds Par. $591.4
32 Men in Black Sony $589.4
33 Armageddon BV $553.7
34 King Kong Uni. $549.2
35 Mission: Impossible II Par. $545.9
36 The Day After Tomorrow Fox $542.8
37 The Empire Strikes Back Fox $538.4
38 Madagascar DW $528.4
39 Monsters, Inc. BV $525.4
40 Terminator 2: Judgment Day TriS $519.8
41 Meet the Fockers Uni. $516.5
42 Ghost Par. $505.7
43 Aladdin BV $504.1
44 Troy WB $497.4
45 Twister WB $494.5
46 Toy Story 2 BV $485.0
47 Bruce Almighty Uni. $484.6
48 Shrek DW $484.4
49 Saving Private Ryan DW $481.8
50 Mr. & Mrs. Smith Fox $478.2
51 Home Alone Fox $477.6
52 Return of the Jedi Fox $475.1
53 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory WB $475.0
54 Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade Par. $474.2
55 Jaws Uni. $470.7
56 Pretty Woman BV $463.4
57 The Matrix WB $460.4
58 Gladiator DW $457.6
59 The Last Samurai WB $456.8
60 Mission: Impossible Par. $456.5
61 Ocean's Eleven WB $450.7
62 Pearl Harbor BV $449.2
63 Tarzan BV $448.2
64 Men in Black II Sony $441.8
65 Mrs. Doubtfire Fox $441.2
66 The Exorcist WB $441.1
67 Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines WB $433.4
68 The Mummy Returns Uni. $433.0
69 Die Another Day MGM $432.0
70 Cast Away Fox $429.6
71 The Matrix Revolutions WB $425.0
72 Dances With Wolves Orion $424.2
73 X-Men: The Last Stand Fox $422.8
74 The Mummy Uni. $415.9
75 Batman WB $411.3
76 The Bodyguard WB $410.9
77 Signs BV $408.2
78 X2: X-Men United Fox $407.6
79 Gone with the Wind MGM $400.2
81 Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves WB $390.5
82 Raiders of the Lost Ark Par. $384.1
83 Ice Age Fox $383.3
84 Back to the Future Uni. $381.1
85 Godzilla Sony $379.0
86 True Lies Fox $378.9
87 Beauty and the Beast BV $377.4
88 What Women Want Par. $374.1
89 Batman Begins WB $371.9
90 There's Something About Mary Fox $369.9
91 The Fugitive WB $368.9
92 Jurassic Park III Uni. $368.8
93 My Big Fat Greek Wedding IFC $368.7
94 Hitch Sony $368.1
95 Notting Hill Uni. $363.9
96 Shark Tale DW $363.5
97 A Bug's Life BV $363.4
98 Ocean's Twelve WB $362.7
99 Planet of the Apes Fox $362.2
100 Toy Story BV $362.0

Terrell

I never thought of that as huge, even by '79 figures. Very good, but not huge. When I think of huge, I think of Star Wars and Raiders.

Jericho

Well Star Wars is huge, #2 all time. But that's a lofty standard. If you look at the adjusted list, you can see Superman right next to a few more modern films, specifically Finding Nemo, the Sixth Sense, and LOTR: The Two Towers. Plus Back to the Future. Those are you modern comparisions, and those seem to be very, very successful films.

sabre

I was a little disappointed with the movie particularly the plot, storyline. When you get decent tone and acting from the two leads bosworth and routh and yet movie falters because of a dumb story it is disappointing. But I'm still hoping the movie does 200 millo us in order for a sequel to be made. I just hope singer brings in better writers and is not so beholden to superman i and ii. superman returns other than the dumb ass kid was a remake of superman 1. i hope singer doesn't decide to remake superman 2 next. singer is a good director so i hope he gets another chance at superman so the box office needs to hit 200 mil i would think.

Shannon Nutt

According to this site, SUPERMAN: THE MOVIE is (when adjusted for inflation) the 59th biggest release of all-time:

http://www.filmsite.org/boxoffice.html