Warner Bros’ and Legendary Pictures’ Man Of Steel (4,207 theaters with 3D in 3,357 venues) grossed $44M in North America on Friday (including the $9M from midnights). “A fantastic start to Father’s Day weekend,” gushed Warner Bros Pictures President, Domestic Distribution, Dan Fellman. It’s now the largest Friday June opening ever. ”Our CinemaScore of ‘A-’ with the youngest (under 18) and the oldest (over 50) age categories both rating the film an ‘A’ should certainly generate strong word of mouth as we continue our run in the heart of the lucrative summer play time.” The 3Dscreens generated 42% of Man Of Steel‘s box office revenue and 32% of all admissions for 6.250M for Friday. The 331 IMAX theatres grossed $5.5M on Friday averaging $16,616 per location and ranking #5 of all time behind The Avengers‘ $5.9M. The Man Of Steel results helped total moviegoing this Friday increase +78% over last year’s box office. Unofficially, projections for the Superman reboot’s 3-day weekend are $105M-$115M with a 4-day cume of $115M-$125M including Thursday’s $12M worth of Wal-Mart sold tickets for the 7 PM show.
Internationally, Warner Bros says Man Of Steel is ranking #1 everywhere with a gross of $17.6M from 9,710 screens in the 24 overseas markets in release. The running cume from abroad is now $25.9M. Key markets that opened this weekend were the UK, Korea, and Mexico. The UK pulled in £3.3M ($5.2M) from 574 situations, dominating the market with a 70% share and ranking as the biggest opening day in 2013 – +11% bigger even than Iron Man 3. Mexico grossed an estimated Ps. 35.7M ($2.8M) from 2,600 screens, and, like the UK, garnered a 70% share of the market. Its Friday opening ranks as the 3rd biggest opening for a WB film. Korea continues to rank #1 with a 50% share of the Top 5 films nationwide and KRW 1.8M ($1.6M) from 990 screens, bringing the two-day tally to KRW 3.2M ($2.8M). Other notable cumes are The Philippines $2.9M (had biggest all-time industry opening day), Taiwan $1.5M (had biggest WB opening day ever), UAE $1.3M, Malaysia $1.3M