Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns scored the eighth highest Wednesday opening in cinema history with an estimated first-day take of $21 million. The film ranks closely behind Paramount’s War of the Worlds on the list of mid-week openers, which is topped by Sony’s Spider-Man 2 ($40.2 million), New Line’s The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ($34.4 million) and Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace ($28.5 million).
Originally slated to open on Friday, June 30, Superman Returns was pushed up so that Warner Bros. could collect as much coin as possible before Disney releases Pirates of the Caribean: Dead Man’s Chest on the following weekend. Supe’s box office should soar to great heights over the Fourth of July holiday, especially if word of mouth has any muscle. Weekend totals will decide whether auds are ready for the second coming of the last son of Krypton or simply suffering from superhero fatigue after flocking to X-Men: The Last Stand, Batman Begins and Fantastic Four.
Next year will truly be the year of comic-book superhero adaptations as studios get set to release Spider-Man 3 (May 4, 2007), Fantastic Four 2 (June 15, 2007), Ghost Rider (Feb. 16, 2007), Hellboy II (early 2007) and Wonder Woman (sometime in 2007). We may also see the X-Men spin off, Wolverine, next year if production stays on schedule.
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