Man of Steel "Beat All Expectations" At the Studio

This weekend's massive $125 million-plus domestic and $150 million-plus worldwide opening weekend at the box office beat any expectations the studio may have had for the film's success, a studio executive told Deadline, which seems to solidify fan impressions that this weekend will mean a sequel for the Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot. "It beat all expectations," the Warner Bros. executive said. "Interesting note that Superman's Saturday gross is double the next ranking Top 4 films added together. That's really dominating the marketplace." As ComicBook.com reported last night, Man of Steel is also set to outperform the next 19 films combined for the full weekend at the box office. Man of Steel is set to be Warner Bros.' fourth-best opening weekend of all time, behind Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, The Dark Knight Rises and The Dark Knight. The reported numbers for the film will give it enough oomph to easily break the top twenty all-time opening weekends, possibly even the top ten depending on what end of the estimates it comes in at. It's likely the high rating among moviegoers (over 80% positive at Rotten Tomatoes, along with an A- CinemaScore) will help the film have legs beyond this week, although it's hardly likely that it will dominate a month in which we've also got Monsters University and World War Z hitting theaters next week. Only time will tell, then, whether Warner executive Jeff Robinov was right when he predicted that the film's worldwide theatrical take would exceed Warner's best-ever film (Deathly Hallows Part 2) by the time it was out of theaters.