UPDATE #2: MAN OF STEEL Is No Match For Monsters Or Zombies After A $12.7M Friday
While Man of Steel impressed many by earning a little under $170 million over the course of seven days, Superman now looks set to fall victim to the monsters of Monsters University and the zombies of World War Z as it enters its second week of release. Read on for details!
Last night, we presented you with some rough estimates which seemed to indicate that Man of Steel would battle it out with World War Z for second place at the North American box office, while Pixar's Monsters University would quite comfortably dominate the top spot. While the latter point remains to be the case - it took $29 million on Friday and is now likely to hit upwards of $80 million this weekend in part thanks to a glowing 'A' CinemaScore - the battle for #2 is now not so much of a battle. Despite a mixed (but mostly positive reaction) from critics, a 'B+' CinemaScore helped the PG-13 zombie movie to overperform yesterday with an impressive $24 million and projected $62 million weekend. This is considerably more than the initial $50 million estimates and a good sign that this could potentially be the beginning of a new franchise for Paramount.
Now, Man of Steel. After opening last Thursday, its total as of yesterday was $168.8 million, and when you take out those evening and midnight showings, it had the 17th biggest opening week of all-time. That's obviously a very good start for the Zack Snyder directed and Christopher Nolan produced reboot, but a disappointing $13.2 million Friday (that's a drop of 71%) means that it should finish the weekend with around $42.7 million for a domestic total of $210 million. Now, this is by no means a BAD result and it's worth bearing in mind that the likes of Iron Man 3 and The Avengers didn't have two major new blockbusters to square off against in only their second weeks of release. It remains to be seen what will happen overseas, but we'll be sure to keep you updated!
UPDATE: As you can see from the Tweet below, Man of Steel has in fact performed a little worse than initially reported. We're hoping to receive confirmed numbers either later today or tomorrow.
UPDATE #2: Some more refined numbers for you now once again courtesy of Deadline. Monsters University actually took a whopping $30.8 million, while World War Z earned $25.5 million for a now predicted weekend cum of at least $63 million. Man of Steel did indeed take only $12.7 million, but it's still well on its way to reaching the numbers mentioned above. Again, stay tuned!