Man of Steel soars over US box office

Man of Steel stars Amy Adams and Henry Cavill pose on the red carpet Superman blockbuster Man of Steel soared to the top of the North American box office this weekend, scoring a $113-million opening despite mixed reviews, provisional figures showed Sunday.
The Zach Snyder-directed movie stars British actor Henry Cavill as the iconic superhero, with Oscar-nominated actress Amy Adams playing Daily Planet journalist Lois Lane in a cast that also includes Russell Crowe, Kevin Costner and Diane Lane.
The movie is the latest attempt to build a money-spinning franchise around the planet Krypton's most famous son, and follows a 2006 reboot by Warner Bros - "Superman Returns" - which ultimately stalled after one film.
Snyder's movie has divided critics however, scoring a modest 56 percent rating on the movie review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, with many complaining of an over-reliance on computer-generated imagery against plot.
Meanwhile another new film, "This Is The End," a comedy starring James Franco and Jonah Hill, opened in second place with $20.5 million, figures from the industry tracker Exhibitor Relations showed.
Sleeper hit "Now You See Me," about an FBI agent and an Interpol detective who hunt down a team of illusionists performing bank heists during their shows, held on to third place with $10.3 million.
Action sequel "Fast & Furious 6," starring Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, added another $9.4 million, taking its outright haul to $219.5 million and positioning it in fourth place.
Low-budget horror film "The Purge" - which scored a surprisingly strong opening last week to top the box office - fell to fifth place with $8.2 million.
However, the $3 million Universal feature starring Ethan Hawke and "Game of Thrones" star Lena Headey has now earned a total of $51.8 million, with a sequel already in the works, according to industry reports.
In sixth place was the Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson comedy "The Internship," which sees the "Wedding Crashers" co-stars competing with tech-savvy wizards after scoring an internship at Google. The film took $7 million.
In seventh spot was animated film "Epic" with $6 million, just ahead of "Star Trek: Into Darkness" with $5.7 million, which has earned $210.5 million so far.
Another science-fiction offering, the critically-savaged Will Smith vehicle "After Earth" was ninth with $3.7 million.
Superhero sequel "Iron Man 3" rounded out the top 10 with $2.9 million in its seventh week, for a total of $399.6 million since its release in May.
Source: AFP