Superman Returns $21 million on Opening Day

June 29, 2006

Superman Returns posted a very respectable, but not spectacular, gross of $21,037,277 on its opening day yesterday. That's the 8th biggest opening Wednesday in history (see chart below), and slightly less than the opening day's receipts for The War of the Worlds, which opened in the same Wednesday-before-July-4 slot last year.

It's still too early to tell how the weekend will work out, but a comparison with War of the Worlds suggests an opening weekend (Friday-Sunday) of around $65 million.

Top Wednesday Openers:

DateFilm NameDaily GrossTheatersWeekend
6/30/2004 Spider-Man 2 $40,442,604 4,152 $88,156,227
12/17/2003 Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King $34,450,834 3,703 $72,629,713
5/19/1999 Star Wars: The Phantom Menace $28,542,349 2,970 $64,810,970
12/18/2002 Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers $26,159,972 3,622 $62,007,528
11/5/2003 Matrix Revolutions, The $24,311,365 3,502 $48,475,154
2/25/2004 Passion of the Christ, The $23,557,000 3,006 $83,848,082
6/29/2005 War of the Worlds, The $21,256,483 3,908 $64,878,725
6/28/2006 Superman Returns $21,037,277 3,915 -
7/18/2001 Jurassic Park 3 $19,024,360 3,434 $50,771,645
7/3/2002 Men in Black 2 $18,599,621 3,557 $52,148,751

Filed under: Superman Returns