Here is a good site for tracking box office numbers:
http://www.the-numbers.com/charts/thisweek.htmlBy clicking on 'Superman Returns,' you can see more detailed info on the movie's progress. A couple of interesting notes:
1) There are no worldwide totals for this movie yet. The $84.2 million is US only.
2) The $84.2 million also does not include the $17-25 million that FX is paying for cable TV rights in the U.S., which puts this film at about half of its production budget already, well over $100 million.
3) It also doesn't include merchandising, like Superman Returns remote-controlled flying Brandon Rouths, or Superman Returns cans of Pepsi.
So Superman Returns has, in one week, eliminated most of its production budget of $209 million...
in the US only. That number may not include several Jon Peters screwups, but still..we're going to have a sequel.
[add. note] Check out the genre categories that Superman Returns has been placed in. For the 'Friendly Alien on Earth' category, E.T. made almost $12 million on its opening weekend, and 'Close Encounters' made $6 million.
For the DC Comics category, Superman: The Movie had a $7.5 million opening weekend. Superman Returns has the largest opening of any DC Comics movie ever, curiously except for 'Batman Forever,' which also made $52 million its opening weekend.
For 'Visual Effects' films, it had a bigger opening on July 4th weekend than...Independence Day!
Superhero films that did not meet their budget? Catwoman, Elektra, Steel, and the Powerpuff Girls. Somehow I think that Superman Returns is not in the same league as these movies.