Saturday, May 2, 2009

'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' Cashes in Big Time at Box Office

Wolverine a big moneymaker

hugh_jackmanThe latest movie to capitalize on what started out as the X-Men comic book series pulled in some serious cash on its opening night. “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” made $35 million Friday night alone, and it looks like it will have another big night tonight.

Hollywood Insider doesn’t believe the movie will match the $98 million ”Iron Man” made at the box office over its opening weekend.

Breaking it down

“X-Men Origins: Wolverine” showed in a total of 4,099 theaters. Friday night the movie made a per-screen average of $8,539.

The opening movie that made the second most on Friday fell about $30 million short of the latest X-Men installment. “Ghost of Girlfriends Past” pulled in $5.8 million. That film graced fewer screens, though, with 3,175. Nowadays, when people practically need payday loans to afford movie theater prices, moviegoers are pretty picky about what they will pay to see.

Not the biggest $-Man

The previous release of an X-Men movie was in 2006, when “X-Men: The Last Stand” came out on the last weekend in May. That film’s opening-night earnings surpassed “Wolverine” by a pretty healthy margin. It made $45 million on May 26. It pulled in a total of $123 million its first weekend.

The 2003 X-Men release, “X2″ pulled in $85 million its opening weekend. The first movie in the series, “X-Men,” came out in 2000, and it made only $54 million its opening weekend.

Comic-based movies top box office books

The award for highest-grossing opening night of all time goes to “The Dark Knight,” which made $66.4 million when it came out July 18, 2008. For the weekend it made more than $158 million. That one weekend nearly covered the cost of making the film, which had a budget of $185 million. ... click here to read the rest of the article titled "'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' Cashes in Big Time at Box Office"

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