Man of Steel reset the record book with an opening weekend estimated at $111.6 million. The session’s sole brave national counter-programmer debut, the apocalyptic comedy. Raptured the second spot with a solid $20.2 million.

Brighter by far were a couple of exclusive newcomers. Nonfiction yarn of session singers 20 Feet from Stardom opened to $51,200 at three spotlights and the youthful felons of The Bling Ring made off with a big haul of $197,000 from just five crime scenes.

In the niches a number of imports from India bowed to blah including Hindi Fukrey that grossed $72,600 at 60 locations.

Overall, it was to Krypton and back with close to $200 million in ticket sales for a 32% jump from last weekend. It was an even sturdier 52% improvement from 2012 that translated into the biggest June weekend ever. Last year the second weekend of Madagascar 3 led with a $34 million tally; top newcomer was Rock of Ages, third with $14.4 million.

The latest reboot of the Superman franchise arrived with high anticipation and the expectation of a $100 million-plus debut, and it delivered the biggest June debut on record. The picture also received a pre-release boost from a massive promotional tie-in with Walmart that offered shoppers an early peek of the man in tights tied in merchandizing buys. While there had been previous efforts like this, the Man of Steel push was the most massive campaign to date, with the studio expected to reap $10-$12 million additional at the box office, a 50% hike in Superman toy and paraphernalia sales, according to a Warner Bros. spokesman.

The film skewed older and male. Men accounted for 56% of opening viewers and the crowd was 62% aged 25-years and older according to studio exit polling.

Man of Steel also launched in 24 international territories, adding an estimated $71 million to its weekend battle royale. Among the major markets were the United Kingdom with $17 million, Mexico with $9.8 million and South Korea’s $8.8 million.

This is The End came in on target with tracking that suggested a gross in the low-to-mid-$30 million range. The studio decided to get a jump on the Kryptonian crusader with a Wednesday opening and collected $12.3 million pre-weekend. The buddy comedy unsurprisingly drew 60% male with 52% of eyes aged 25-years old and more senior.

Few of the alternative titles in the marketplace were able to secure new screens this weekend with the exception of Before Midnight,w chich expanded to a national presence with 897 engagements, with a disappointing $1.5 million box office. Modernized Much Ado About Nothing added 18 venues and maintained a strong PSA of $6,350.

Well, no one saw that coming … or did they?

It was the scrappy little sci-fi thriller The Purge that emURGEd as the weekend movie favorite with an estimated debut of $36.3 million. Meanwhile, its presumed competition The Internship mustered less than 50% of its opening to rank fourth overall with $18.2 million.

Exclusive newcomers saw a couple of very encouraging openings, including the nonfiction Dirty Wars that cleaned up $62,200 from four excursions. The much-updated Much Ado About Nothing arrived with $197,000 from five new Globes.

The session also featured considerable and effective expansion for alternative product. The East, Frances Ha, The Kings of Summer and Love is All You Need continued to add playdates and hold their own against the mainstream wave.

In the niches, the Hindi Yamla Pagla Deewana 2 had fair response of $221,000 at 100 venues and the Telugu Prema Katha Chitram grossed a very dull $32,300 from 20 screens. Québécois Sarah préfère la course ran toward $53,500 at 18 locations.

Weekend revenues amassed roughly $155 million in ticket sales for a 7% dip from seven days prior and a sharper 15% decline from 2012. A year back, the openings of Madagascar 3 and Prometheus held sway with respective bows of $60.3 million and $51.1 million.

Let’s start with the obvious … the buddy comedy as we have known it is over … at the very least until a new dynamic pairing comes along to bring it back to life.

The other notion that emerges from the weekend dust-up is that the infamous declining 18-25-year-old crowd is becoming less visually literate. The dominance of The Purge most certainly had less to do with state-of-the-art technology than a high-concept premise that tapped into a youthful zeitgeist. Studio exit demos revealed 56% of viewers were aged 25-years and younger. Conversely, The Internship had just 39% of the same age bracket. One could spit-ball that a generation accustomed to seeing moving images on smartphones just might not be tapped into pictorial nuance The other factor that just might have contributed to the rush to see The Purge was a marketing campaign that emphasized its underdog status. Considerable ink was spilled to get across its very modest budget versus its high chill factor. Historians can cite similar positioning for the likes of The Blair Witch Project and Paranormal Activity (with which it shares a producer) as templates to the current June surprise. The film had top end expectations of $25 million and an unquestionable aspect of its wider popularity was its unforeseen female appeal with women comprising 56% of opening weekend viewers.

The Internship had a 50-50 gender breakdown and all the signals for a $25 million debut. The commercial chemistry of Wilson-Vaughan of The Wedding Crashers provided goodwill but that wasn’t a sufficient hook for a younger crowd that anecdotally were tweeting Friday night that the picture lacked the audacity and crudeness that many anticipated.

Fast & Furious 6 left the competition choking in the dust as it charged to an estimated $98.4 million for the three-day portion (all figures reflect 3-day box office) of the Memorial holiday frame. That proved to be bad news for the launch of The Hangover Part III that slotted second with $42.1 million during the record breaking session. The third new wide release was the futuristic animated Epic that performed to expectations with a $33.8 million telling.

The three-day portion generated more than $260 million in ticket sales with the full holiday period expected to set a new benchmark of $325 million. The prior record level was back in 2011 with a $276 million tally.

While tracking clearly favored Fast & Furious 6 over The Hangover Part III, the margin between the franchises was predicted to be considerably closer. The anticipation was that the former would gross $100 million to the latter’s $80 million in rough figures. Instead the spread is more apt to be $120 million versus $65 million and that ought to provide considerable pause about the methods employed to predict box office. In recent months considerable ink has been spilled about new tracking processes that would more accurately reflect the ultimate gross but one suspects calculations retain a bias that the 18-to-25-year olds will regain their bygone moviegoing habit now that summer has arrived. Fat chance!

The head-to-head between the two franchises was also ill-advised in light of their appeal to a similar audience base. F&F6 drew a crowd that was 51% male; HIII was 52% male. Similarly, the comedy romp viewers were 55% aged 25-years and over while the turbo tale was 57% for that sector.

The difference likely boiled down to the fact that one franchise has a history of reinvention and surprise and the other sank expectations with a third edition that, frankly, disappointed in both areas. A studio spokesman for Hangover said it chose to go head-to-head because that was the date it released the second part and “we underestimated the appeal of Fast & Furious.” Ooops!

That turned out to provide a clear field for Epic… or at least the ability to mine different quadrants. Studio exit polls revealed a far different profile with 57% of viewers female and 55% aged younger than 25.

In the niches, the frame saw good response for the Punjabi Jatts in Golmaal of $71,800 from 22 venues. A  couple of exclusives were off to heady starts. The Israeli Fill the Void permeated the marketplace with $57,400 at three screens and even better, Before Midnight, the third Delpy-Hawke-Linklater roundelay, romanced excellent box office of $262,000 at five locations.