Box office collection for Gunn’s Superman to soar above $200M

James Gunn’s Superman is expected to generate more than $200M in its global premiere during the three-day weekend.

A Deadline report from Friday citing sources said box office previews for Gunn’s Superman are at least $22.5M, much ahead of Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel, which generated $9M.

The preview figure includes $2.8M cash collected from Tuesday night’s Amazon (AMZN) Prime member screenings and collections from showtimes that began today at 2PM, the report said.

The movie, which would be distributed by Warner Bros. (NASDAQ:WBD), is the first film from DC Studios after Gunn assumed leadership.

He was poached by the studio after his successful stint at Marvel (DIS) directing the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, which has made $2.5B worldwide.

Gunn’s Superman has an 82% approval on Rotten Tomatoes, behind Richard Donner’s 1978 original, which has 86%.

Deutsche Bank analyst Bryan Kraft said on Thursday as the movie industry normalizes, following the COVID-19 pandemic and Hollywood strikes, total box office revenues should continue to improve.

Kraft expects the volume of films released to theaters to continue to improve in the second half of this year and beyond.

Wedbush said Friday box office collections are expected to be more consistent in the coming quarters. The research firm expects mid-to-high single-digit growth rates in box office revenue over the next few years.