Man of Steel Headed for a $150 Million Weekend Worldwide

reports that Man of Steel is headed for a $150 million weekend at the global box office, with the most current projections suggesting that the film will rake in around $125 million in the U.S. this weekend, and another $20-30 million at the international box office for a huge $150 million opening weekend. The film, like Marvel's The Avengers did last year, will generate more money at the domestic box office this weekend than all 19 of the other top twenty movies combined, lending credence to Fandango's earlier claims that the movie was responsible for about 95% of all tickets sold this week. Coupled with the more than $160 million in commercial tie-ins, that means Warner Bros. has already made their money back on the Zack Snyder-directed Superman reboot. After a weekend of fluctuating (but always increasing) projections, these numbers are based on the first official reports coming back from Warner Bros.; previous reports were based on exhibitor estimates. Here's what they had to say about the film's overseas performance (which is basically a lot of numbers, so it's easier to reprint than to summarize):

Internationally, Warner Bros says Man Of Steel isranking #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.

The weekend's #2 movie is the apocalypse comedy This is The End, which has garnered generally positive critical reviews and a B CinemaScore, meaning that audiences who are going (about $30 million worth this weekend) are enjoying it almost as much as they are Man of Steel.