Man of Steel Soars to Box Office Top

Superman was reborn at the box office as the big-budget gamble Man of Steel cleared the box office its opening weekend in a single bound clearing $116.6M in a single bound. Warner Bros.’ comic book relaunch broke the record for the biggest June opening ever, according to final studio figures for the weekend of June 14-16. Toy Story 3 held the June record since 2010 with $110.3M.

Henry Cavill stars as Superman in Man of Steel (Photo courtesy of Warner Bros.)

Directed by Zack Snyder, Henry Cavill takes on the title role in the movie that also features an Oscar-caliber cast including Russell Crowe, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Michael Shannon and Laurence Fishburne. Christopher Nolan, who successfully rebooted the Batman franchise for the studio, produced Man of Steel. Much of the film’s story involves Superman’s two dads from Krypton and Earth and how they molded him, perfect for the Father’s Day weekend.

Opening far behind in second place was the new doomsday comedy This is the End from Sony with $20.7M over three days and $33M since its Tuesday night launch. It was a respectable opening especially considering the distraction Clark Kent had over the target audience of young men. The raunchy R-rated comedy stars Seth Rogen, James Franco, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Jonah Hill and Jay Baruchel.

Holding steady in third place was Lionsgate’s heist thriller Now You See Me with $11M, down 42 percent, for a robust total to date of $80.7M. The top-grossing installment of the franchise, Universal’s Fast & Furious 6 followed with $9.6M dropping 51 percent pushing the domestic tally to a muscular $219.7M. Last week’s top film The Purge plunged 76 percent to $8.3M. The micro-budgeted $3M movie has nonetheless raked in a healthy $52M in 10 days for Universal. The Fox comedy The Internship fell 59 percent in its second weekend to $7.1M putting the Vince Vaughn-Owen Wilson flick at a disappointing $31.1M.

The summer’s most notable flop so far, Will Smith’s critically panned father-son sci-fi adventure After Earth, fell 62 percent to $4.1M for a lousy $54.5M total to date for the pricey $130M gamble. Flirting with the quadruple century mark, Iron Man 3 rounded out the top ten with $3M in its seventh weekend, down 49 percent.