‘Man of Steel’ Takes Flight With $125 Million Debut

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Man of Steel” leaped over box office expectations in a single weekend.

The Warner Bros. superhero file earned $113 million in its opening weekend at the box office, according to studio estimates Sunday.  The retelling of Superman’s back story earned an additional $12 million from Thursday screenings, bringing its domestic total to $125 million.  Original box-office expectations for “Man of Steel” ranged from $75 million to $130 million.

“They finally got the Superman formula right,” said Paul Dergarabedian, an analyst for box-office tracker Hollywood.com.  “Superhero movies really are the bread and butter of the summer box office.  The fact that ‘Iron Man 3’ has the biggest opening of the year so far and ‘Man of Steel’ has the second biggest opening of the year just proves that.”

Read more:  http://www.timesleader.com/news/local-news/605571/Man-of-Steel-takes-flight-with-$125M-debut

Pittsburgh Goes Batty – Filming For “The Dark Knight Rises” Wraps Up

Image via Wikipedia

Pennsylvania’s second-largest city is going Hollywood.  Pittsburgh, or more aptly named “Glitzburgh”, has hosted some serious movie action as of late.  The biggest movie to film in the area is the latest installment of the Batman franchise, The Dark Knight Rises

The Batman franchise has been commercially successful.  The last installment, The Dark Knight grossed over $1 BILLION! Bringing the film to Pittsburgh has been an economic boon for many downtown businesses and Greater Pittsburgh in general.  In addition, I read there were 3,000 extras hired for the film while in Pittsburgh.  9,000 people showed up for a chance to be in the movie.

Read the article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and see what impact a big-budget film can have on the hosting community.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11232/1168640-53.stm