Advance online ticket sales via MovieTickets for the first two big films of the summer season, X-Men Origins:  Wolverine and Star Trek, are running far ahead of sales on Iron Man last year at this time, according to Hollywood Reporter.  Wolverine sales are triple those for Iron Man at the same point last year, and Star Trek is already 25% ahead of Wolverine.  

It’s difficult to assess the impact of the growing popularity of online ticketing, which could explain some of the increase, but it seems clear that the first two genre films of the summer are going to give a great kick-off to the all-important summer season.