'Superman' launches James Gunn's DC cinematic universe with $122 million domestic opening

"Superman" soared into theaters this weekend, snapping up an estimated $122 cardinal successful home summons income and launching a caller epoch of DC superhero flicks.

The movie marks the archetypal theatrical debut of James Gunn and Peter Safran since they became co-heads of Warner Bros. Discovery's DC Comics movie and TV portion successful precocious 2022. The brace has developed a 10-year program to reinvigorate the studio's franchises crossed TV and film, including caller spins connected Superman and Batman.

"The roadworthy to occurrence for DC has been a circuitous 1 implicit the years and present nether the auspices of James Gunn and Peter Safran, the awesome opening play show of 'Superman' allows DC Studios to deed the reset and illustration a caller people with this movie providing the spark to ignite aboriginal occurrence for the storied brand," said Paul Dergarabedian, elder media expert astatine Comscore.

The home haul of "Superman" ranks arsenic the champion show of a solo-billed Superman movie ever, outpacing 2013's "Superman: Man of Steel," which took successful $116 cardinal during its archetypal 3 days successful theaters, according to Comscore data.

Only 4 DC films person performed amended during their archetypal 3 days successful theaters — "Batman v. Superman" opened to $166 million, "The Dark Knight Rises" captured $160 million, "The Dark Knight" brought successful $158.4 cardinal and "The Batman" tallied $134 million.

"Superman is fulfilling its committedness arsenic different invited deed for the summertime container office, portion besides serving arsenic an effectual motorboat pad for James Gunn's caller epoch of DC Studios," said Shawn Robbins, manager of analytics astatine Fandango and laminitis of Box Office Theory.

Internationally, "Superman" generated $95 cardinal successful summons sales, bringing its estimated planetary opening to $217 million.

Disclosure: Comcast is the genitor institution of NBCUniversal and CNBC. NBCUniversal owns Fandango.