The summer movie season got off to a good start over the weekend with “X-Men Origins: Wolverine” taking in an estimated $87 million. The first tent-pole movie of the summer started off to a solid $35 million opening day Friday and continued to have a solid run over the weekend.
“Wolverine”‘s number is the second-highest opening of the X-Men franchise, behind 2006’s “X-Men: The Last Stand”, which made its debut on a Memorial Day holiday weekend with $102 million.
“We sweated this one out,” says Chris Aronson, senior vice president of distributor 20th Century Fox. “But the exit polls are terrific, with nearly half the audience saying it’s better than they had expected. It really comes back to Hugh (Jackman). I think audiences have a tremendous appetite for both Hugh and his character, Wolverine, that he really created.”
The romantic comedy “Ghost of Girlfriends Past” opened in second place with $15.3 million.
The Beyonce Knowles thriller “Obsessed” finished third, with $12.2 million, a drop of 57% from its surprisingly strong No. 1 opening the previous week. After 10 days in theaters, the film has grossed $47 million, more than twice its $20 million budget.
The Zac Efron comedy “17 Again” placed fourth with $6.4 million, followed by “Monsters vs. Aliens”, which picked up an estimated $5.8 million its sixth weekend. The animated hit has now grossed $182.4 million.
However, the news wasn’t good for the animated “Battle for Terra.” The new 3-D animated film only generated $1.1 million over the weekend.
