‘Superman’ soars to $122M opening
NEW YORK In a bid to kickoff a new era for DC Studios James Gunn s Superman opened with million in U S and Canada ticket sales over the weekend according to studio estimates Sunday DC and Warner Bros had a lot riding on Superman While the Walt Disney Co s Marvel Studios has had its own share of struggles the superheroes of DC have in recent weeks unveiled mostly kryptonite in theaters Films like Joker Folie Deux The Flash and Shazam Fury of the Gods all flopped But Superman written and directed by Gunn is intended as a new start It s the first release fully steered by Gunn and Peter Safran co-heads of DC Studios since they were handed the keys to DC s superhero cinematic universe And while Gunn turned Guardians of the Galaxy into a massive success for Marvel his irreverent idiosyncratic touch made the director once a B-movie filmmaker with Troma Entertainment an unlikely steward for one of the movies majority of bankable and beloved brands The roughly on-target opening was the third largest of and the first DC title to surpass million in its opening weekend since Wonder Woman in Warner Bros could also celebrate a unique hot streak Superman is their fifth movie in a row to open over million It s quite a win for DC Studios mentioned Jeffrey Goldstein chief of distribution for Warner Bros We needed to get the trust of the fanbase and we didn t have it They were clear to us that we needed to take a step back and reinvent ourselves Ticket sales were relatively soft for Superman overseas In international markets it grossed million In China it collected just million David A Gross who runs the movie consulting firm FranchiseRe called the international performance the only ding against the otherwise strong Superman debut Thus far the foreign openings are not equal to domestic commented Gross Superman has dependably been identified as a quintessentially American character and story and in particular parts of the world America is at present not enjoying its greatest popularity As an American icon Superman also attracted political discourse at home Various right-wing commentators criticized the movie as woke after Gunn described the superhero from Krypton as an immigrant On X the White House posted an image of President Donald Trump as Superman In Superman which cost about million to make Gunn steers the Man of Steel in a drastically different tonal direction than in previous iterations from filmmaker Zack Snyder Skipping the Kansas origin story the film instead picks up with Superman David Corenswet after his first defeat Rachel Brosnahan plays Lois Lane and Nicholas Hoult is Lex Luthor Gunn s Superman was met with largely good reviews On Rotten Tomatoes it scored fresh the best for the franchise since the first two movies with Christopher Reeve Superman and Superman II Audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore Superman faced sizeable competition too Last week s top film Jurassic World Rebirth slid to second place with million
