Weekend Box Office: June 14-16

Courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1.  Man of Steel - $113 million

2.  This is the End - $20.5 million

3.  Now You See Me - $10.3 million

4.  Fast & Furious 6 - $9.4 million

5.  The Purge - $8.2 million

6.  The Internship - $7 million

7.  Epic - $6 million

8.  Star Trek Into Darkness - $5.6 million

9.  After Earth - $3.7 million

10.  Iron Man 3 - $2.9 million

A few days ago, the fanboy community went into a collective tizzy when the Rotten Tomatoes review meter for Man of Steel landed with an unexpected thud.  They needn't have worried.  Man of Steel raced through its opening weekend faster than a speeding bullet and more powerful than a locomotive as it broke June's opening weekend box office record with a spectacular $113 million. 

In fact, it's actually a little better than that.  Screenings of Man of Steel started on Thursday night, thanks to screenings sponsored by Walmart, which earned it about $12 million before the midnight screenings even started.  So that makes the whole weekend haul closer to $125 million.  Overseas, the film earned an additional $71 million. 

So, Superman is doing just fine.

Also opening this weekend was the apocalypse comedy This is the End, which earned $20.5 million.  That movie opened last Wednesday, to get at least a day in before Man of Steel, so its domestic total right now stands at an estimated $32 million.  With comedies Hangover III and The Internship already mostly forgotten about, This is the End should enjoy a successful counterprogramming run against all of the superheroes, Pixar monsters, and zombies infiltrating multiplexes for the next few weeks.

Now You See Me is still chugging along impressively as well, holding up in third place with $10.3 million.  Not so impressive was last week's champ, The Purge, which took an awful 76% nosedive in its second weekend, earning just $8.2 million.  But it only had a reported budget of around $3 million, so after its first weekend, it doesn't really matter what it does from here.

Next week will have monsters vs. monsters, but they're not really competing for the same audience, as one is Pixar's Monster University, and the other is Brad Pitt's troubled-but-finally-here zombie film, World War Z. 

And that Superman guy will still be around.  Sound like he's going to be around for awhile this time.