I’m told Warner Bros.’ Superman Returns opened Wednesday with $19 million at the U.S. box office. That’s only OK — not great, not terrible, prompting box office guru analysis that the gay whisper campaign which crescendoed into newspapers and on the Internet hurt the movie’s viability as did its star Brandon Routh’s anonymity. Predictions are that Superman Returns could muster $100 million for the long July 4th weekend which in many American households will continue from Friday through Tuesday. But the problem is not only the film’s $200 mil-$250 mil budget, but that the movie will get swamped its second weekend out by Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean 2, which continues tracking as the biggest movie opening ever. Major film critics have been split almost down the middle reviewing this film, although Bryan Singer’s direction is generally lauded. Meanwhile, Warner Bros. has been desperately re-tooling its marketing campaign for the movie in light of the studio’s failure to stem the gay buzz surrounding Superman Returns. As late as this week, new TV ads transformed Routh from doe-eyed softie to macho techno-man of steel, borrowing heavily from other comic books successes like Spiderman and X-Men in its look and feel, with special effects set to pounding rap music (cue Terminator-like eyeball suck-out) and no thumpa-thumpa Gloria Gaynor within earshot. For more Hollywood summer movie madness, read my latest LA Weekly column, Super-Manly Makeovers, Slackers and Perkbusters.
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