Confirmation of the inevitable Justice League ensemble movie just got closer... Man Of Steel has soared to $56.1 million at the US Box Office since opening on Thursday night. Analysts say the new Superman movie will likely fly to $130 million by the end of the weekend, way beyond Warner Bros' most hopeful of estimates. In comparison, Bryan Singer's Superman Returns opened to just $52 million eight years ago, way less than half of what Man Of Steel should do by Monday. Man Of Steel is a massive success out of the gates, breaking records for the biggest opening day in June on record, and the second biggest of 2013 so far after Iron Man 3. This despite a very mediocre critical reaction (
WhatCulture's Shaun Munro loved it... I on the other hand thought it was, well, somewhere between pointless, occasionally baffling, reckless and charmless... but at least much more entertaining than the last four Superman movies, though not good by any means) where Man Of Steel could only hit 58% on Rotten Tomatoes. In truth, with Christopher Nolan's name on this and his extremely smart marketing machine (for once the trailers for a summer blockbuster gave less than a quarter % of the film away) and Snyder's casting choices... it was bullet-proof to reviews. Opening on Thursday to the tune of a whopping $21 million ($7 million from early 7pm screenings and $9 million from midnights showings), Zack Snyder's reboot of Superman took $41. million on Friday (which included the aforementioned $9 million midnights) and according to
Deadline, that figure could actually be $50 million by the time all the receipts have been counted. Word of mouth is obviously going to be much stronger than it was for Superman Returns in 2006, which bodes extremely well for just how high the box office could go here. Superman Returns bowed out with $200 million domestic, a figure Man Of Steel could do in just a week. International numbers aren't in just yet but the movie had huge buzz in the UK, where it is expected to have dominated the weekend.