After years of waiting, Green Lantern arrives in theaters this weekend as Warner Bros. looks to turn DC Comics’ emerald warrior into a major tentpole franchise.
Green Lantern is opening wide at more than 3,600 theaters in 2D and stereoscopic 3D formats, making it easily the widest opening of the week. The movie is directed by Martin Campbell and stars Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard, Mark Strong, Angela Bassett and Tim Robbins. It features extensive visual effects work in bringing the many aliens of the Green Lantern Corps to the screen, including work from Sony Pictures Imageworks, Rising Sun Pictures, Gnomon Studios, Proof, Yannix, Digiscope, New Deal Studios, Hydraulx VFX, Pixer Playground and Pixomodo.
Warner Bros. is look to its recently re-organized DC Entertainment unit to provide properties capable of replacing the venerable and profitable Harry Potter series on its schedule, and the performance of Green Lantern will be the first big test of the DC properties.
Here’s the trailer for the film:
The only major new opener challenging Green Lantern is Fox’s family comedy Mr. Popper’s Penguins, starring Jim Carrey and a number of digital birds. Rhythm & Hues and Hydraulx FX contributed visual effects to the film, which opens in about 3,200 theaters.
Here’s the trailer for Mr. Popper’s Penguins:
Holdover competition comes from Super 8, which will have its legs tested for the first time, X-Men: First Class and the still-strong Kung Fu Panda 2 from DreamWorks Animation. Meanwhile, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides looks to continue its world-beating streak, having passed the $900 million mark, with about $700 million of that coming from international markets.
And it’s now only about a week to the debut of the most-recent Pixar entry, Cars 2, which rolls into theaters June 24.
