‘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

‘Fast & Furious 6’ Fuels Record Weekend At Box-Office

The exhaust smoke hasn’t even cleared, and already Hollywood can brag about its biggest money-making Memorial Day Weekend ever.

Hollywood Reporter hit the accelerator with its gushing, declaring the expected four-day take of $316 million to be “absolutely monumental,” leaving previous late May holiday weekends choking in its dust.

“One of the biggest weekends of all-time!” writes Paul Dergarabedian.

Indeed, BoxOfficeMojo.com gives the previous champ as Dec 25-27, 2009 (led by Avatar), with a distant $259.9 million in total domestic ticket sales. Then again, add in the the $58.3 million from Monday, Dec. 28, 2009, and the comparable four-day total becomes an unsurpassed $318.2 million.

Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20130527_Fast_Furious_6_fuels_record_weekend_at_box-office.html#L7vC5qrcf6jQuktw.99