Awaiting Superman's Return

The Hollywood premiere's a wrap. The early reviews are in. At least one oddsmaker is crunching numbers. Now all Superman needs to do is fly.

Superman Returns will open next week on more than 3,900 screens, Exhibitor Relations Co. estimated Thursday. Late-night showings for early-bird fans will begin in some cities on Tuesday night. The official release date is Wednesday.

"I believe its Wednesday is going to be out of control," says Exhibitor Relations' Paul Dergarabedian.

The record for biggest opening day was set last year by Star Wars: Episode III--The Revenge of the Sith, which took in $50 million on a Thursday. Spider-Man 2 holds the distinction of being the all-time biggest Wednesday opener, snaring $40.4 million on a late June day in 2004.

The online gaming site Sportsbook.com is offering odds on whether Superman Returns will soar past, or fall short of, $89.5 million in its opening, Friday-Sunday weekend.

Asked about the over/under proposition, BoxOfficeMojo.com's Brandon Gray said he'd go with under--because diehards will have had two full days to see the movie by the time the weekend rolls around, he said, and because Fourth of July barbecues may keep some potential ticket buyers out of theaters.

Spider-Man 2, which faced similar logistics, did not top $89.5 million its opening weekend; it made $88.2 million. This year, the only movie to surpass $89.5 million in its first weekend was X-Men: The Last Stand, which made $102.8 million. (More in the name of nostalgia than comparison, Superman: The Movie, the most successful of the Christopher Reeve big-screen entries, grossed all of $7.5 million in its opening weekend in 1978, Exhibitor Relations said.)

"I do think it will do well," Gray said Thursday of Superman Returns. "I don't expect it to break records, but it could do very well."

Warner Bros., the studio which struggled for more than a decade to get the Man of Steel back in the sky, bet an estimated $200 million production budget on Superman Returns doing very well. So far, at least, critics are pleased. RottenTomatoes.com had tracked 12 reviews as of Thursday--11 of them were good.

Among the pull quotes available to studio publicists:

"Gorgeously crafted epic"--David Ansen, Newsweek. "Superman returns with a bang"--Peter Travers, Rolling Stone. "A sleek marvel of fun"---Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly. "An action adventure that's as thrilling for what it means as for what it shows"--Richard Corliss, Time. "Will pull down stratospheric B.O. around the globe"--Todd McCarthy, Variety.

Superman Returns stars Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor, Kate Bosworth as Lois Lane and onetime soap player Brandon Routh as Clark Kent and Kent's hulkier half.

Routh, the unknown among the cast, has come through the early reviews intact, even if he hasn't proved bulletproof. Ansen, for one, couldn't decide if the 26-year-old was a "real actor" or not. Still, the critic decided, "he effortlessly lays claim to the iconic role, just as Reeve did."

Routh bore up well Wednesday night at the movie's red-carpet Hollywood premiere, which technically was held in West Los Angeles. Costars Bosworth and Spacey and director Bryan Singer were on hand, as were the Superman-affiliated likes of Dean Cain, who donned the cape in TV's Lois & Clark, and Shaquille O'Neal, who boasts an "S" tattoo on his arm, and who flew (by plane) from Miami, where he won basketball's NBA championship on Tuesday night.

Another name in attendance: Routh's uncle, Rodger. The impartial observer told Iowa's KCCI-TV that his nephew, who hails from Hawkeye state, comported himself nicely, and offered the following film review: "It was fantastic."

The blurbs are piling up...