Business

‘Superman’ snares $22.5 million in Thursday previews on way to $140 million opening

The first film in the new era of DC films under James Gunn and Peter Safran snared $22.5 million from preview showings. It’s the third-best Thursday performance for a superhero flick under the DC banner ever, just behind “The Dark Knight Rises,” which secured $30.6 million in 2012, and “Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice,” which tallied $27.7 million on its first Thursday in 2016, according to data from Comscore. It’s also the best preview numbers for a Superman film ever. “Superman: Man of Steel” secured just $9 million in Thursday night preview tickets in 2013. ″‘With great power comes great responsibility’ may be the mantra of Spider-Man, but Peter Safran and James Gunn have a similar charge and therefore the stakes are incredibly high for the new ‘Superman’ movie to deliver superhero style box office numbers over what will be a highly scrutinized summer movie weekend,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. “Superman” is expected to tally between $130 million and $140 million at the box office during its full three-day opening weekend. “Man of Steel” generated $116 million during its opening weekend more than a decade ago. That range is also on par with the 2022 release of Matt Reeves’ “The Batman,” which took in $134 million. Only three DC films have performed better during their first three days in theaters — “Batman v. Superman” opened to $166 million, “The Dark Knight Rises” captured $160 million and “The Dark Knight” brought in $158.4 million. “Premium screens will undoubtedly be a major draw for James Gunn’s hopeful superhero spectacle, and if families turn out to introduce today’s younger generation of kids to Superman, we’ll be looking up to box office staying power through the rest of summer,” said Shawn Robbins, director of analytics at Fandango and founder of Box Office Theory.