Warner Bros.' Superman Returns grossed an estimated $21 million in its Tuesday-Wednesday debut this week, placing it eighth on the list of movie openings for that day of the week.
It's just behind Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds which collected $21.3 million last year.
Spider-Man 2 holds the record for a Wednesday opener at $40.4 million.
Meanwhile, Sirius radio shock jock Howard Stern displayed an impressive knowledge of the Spider-Man/Venom storyline that's central to Spider-Man 3 in an on-air review of the trailer now playing with Superman.
He also praised the trailer and the pace at which super-hero movies are coming out now. While expressing some disappointment that Superman movies aren't exploring more of the Man of Steel's mythology beyond Lex Luthor, Stern had nothing but praise for Singer’s film as well.
On the same show, a member of the FX crew for Spider-Man 3 said that shooting in New York would go on for the next two days and then production was moving back to L.A. for a short time before a 2-month break. Shooting will resume in September, he said.
And Stern played some of Hugh Jackman’s taped message to an industry conference this week in which he revealed the Wolverine movie is a go and David Benioff is writing it as a prequel to X-Men as of now.