Man of Steel Sets June Record By *Cheesy Punning To First Place [Weekend Box Office]

From Box Office Mojo

Thanks, in part, to the most embarrassing promotional tie-in campaign of all time, Man of Steel *soared to a new June record by opening with an impressive $125M at the domestic box office. Seriously, can you remember a film that shilled for more brand products than this flick? “When Superman has a Superflow, he uses Tampax!”

Since monetary inflation is entirely ignored to inflate (irony!) the importance of current box office receipts, records are basically superfluous, but it’s still a heck of a total.

Warner Bros desperately needed a new signature franchise before the inevitable reboot of Batman and Harry Potter (Samuel L. Jackson as Dumbledore please) so Man of Steel‘s weekend take should keep the exec’s cocaine and Thai prostitute inventory stocked for a while.

It’s also good news for people hoping to finally see Aquaman on the big screen. WB wanted to see the Supes’ receipts before bankrolling a Justice League adaptation to compete with Marvel’s The Avengers.

Given Iron Man 3‘s rightful defeat of Man of Steel at the cineplex, Marvel’s golden boots aren’t exactly shaking.

I was a little surprised to see my Facebook News Feed blow up on Saturday with an overwhelmingly negative reaction to the son of Jor-El’s newest incarnation. I didn’t love it by any means, but it had its moments. I expected to be on the receiving end of “screw you douche, Superman was awesome!” but I found myself meekly defending it.

SuperJesus punched out evolution, what more do you people want!?

Speaking of Jesus, in second place this weekend is a movie I liked more than I probably should have. Seth Rogen’s directorial debut This Is The End is half way to making its budget back with a take of $32M.

I say half way because the theatrical gross for a studio is around 50% after the theaters take their cut. That percentage differs of course, but that’s the general rule of thumb. With a production budget of $32M, This Is The End should at least break even by the time it’s raptured out of theaters.

On the production budget side, that doesn’t include promotion and advertising. Even with P&A, it should be all right. As a point of comparison, on the production budget side alone, The Lone Ranger needs to gross over $400M just to make its money back.

Yeesh. For Disney’s sake, let’s hope The Lone Ranger has a gigantic, be-penised demon other than Army Hammer.

I don’t know what that joke means, if you do, please explain in the comments.

Now You See Me inexplicably took third place over the weekend. I haven’t seen it but Janelle Burmaster did and her recounting of the event leads me to believe I made the right decision.

The rest of America seems to have made the opposite decision as the magician caper is the surprise hit of the summer so far.

If you had told me in the spring that an ensemble movie about magic would out gross the Will Smith sci-fi joint I would have asked you to leave because clearly you were drunk. Alcohol = Truth.

Fast and Furious 6 decelerated into fourth place, bringing its world wide grand total to $636M. It’s nice to know that in this time of global upheaval, we can still come together as a species and guarantee that every Fast sequel will be more successful than the last.

And finally, rounding out your top five is Ethan Hawke’s yacht downpayment, The Purge. A movie with a concept so high, the animated marsupial from Kangaroo Jack is still dizzy with laughter.