Kryptonite Bites

Why Warner Bros. turned back the clock
The big news yesterday was that Warner Bros. had decided to open Superman Returns two days early, on June 28 instead of June 30.

But why?

Entertainment Weekly's Popwatch notes that while studio executives claim they'd been thinking about June 28 from the very beginning, the real reason likely has to do with a desire for a "record" box office:

Read all the fine print about X3's "record" haul and you'll start to get an idea what Warner's after. Almost every "record" these days has some sort of asterisk after it -- either it's three-day vs. five-day, Friday vs. Saturday, Memorial Day vs. any old weekend, domestic vs. global, 1,000 screens vs. 3,000, or some combination of factors that casual observers rarely take the time to suss out. The studios trumpet their winnings, and all we hear is "big" and "record." Execs are looking for new hurdles to clear because they want a big headline and two-page ad in Variety to settle some stockholder nerves Back East.

Headline of the day
Defamer wins for its item about the opening-date shuffle: "Superman Flies Around Earth at Speed of Light, Changes Definition of Weekend to Seven Days."

The Man of Steel Merchandise
The Des Moines Register eyes all the T-shirts, toys and cereal boxes featuring the face of Iowa boy Brandon Routh.

The Superman action figure received the thumbs down from Matt Johnson, co-owner of Cup o'Kryptonite comic and coffee shop in Des Moines: "It's not the first (superhero that gets) people to come in and go, 'Oh, sweet! A new action figure. I've got to buy it.' Batman, yes. Superman, no. Superman hasn't changed over the years. There's no variant. It's the same costume since 1938."