There is no doubt that X2: X-Men United will blitz the box office this weekend, it's just a matter of by what multiple it will top the sum of all the other movies in theaters during the first weekend in May, which now marks the beginning of the summer movie season.  X2's box office barrage should provoke plenty of interest in Free Comic Book Day, which falls propitiously on Saturday, May 3.  Not only will X2 cream its contemporary competition, it also appears that this is one sequel that will eclipse the original.

 

The first X-Men movie opened in July of 2000 in 3025 theaters and earned a weekend box office total of $54.5 million.  X2 will open in 3,741 theaters, but don't be fooled by the relatively modest increase in theaters, Fox has produced some 8,000 prints for the North American market, which means that X2 will have more than just one screen at the local multiplex.  X2 should also benefit from a May opening, as last year's Spider-Man certainly did.  Look for X2 to fall short of Spider-Man's record-setting $114 million opening, but well north of X1's $54.5 million.

 

Bad reviews wouldn't necessarily stop moviegoers from checking out X2, but there is no need to worry about that.  The Rotten Tomatoes website is reporting that X2 has so far earned positive reviews from 29 out 33 critics -- and even some reviews listed as pans such as Richard Corliss's piece in Time Magazine actually contain a lot of positive statements about the film and its superb special effects.