James Gunn’s acclaimed and buzzy Superman opened in North America with $125 million toward a $95 million overseas launch. The domestic grosses are good enough, especially with thus-far strong weekday earnings ($12.9 million on Monday, $17 million on Tuesday and $11.8 million on Wednesday) to compensate for thus-far lousy international grosses.

And the buzz is closer to Batman Begins than Superman Returns, so we invited TheWrap’s resident scooper and geek-specific (but not IP-exclusive) film journalist, Umberto Gonzalez, to answer “Why is this IP franchise reboot different from all other IP franchise reboots?”

Jeremy Fuster discusses how this furthers the notion of Warner Bros. Discovery’s attempts at theatrical consistency. Lisa Laman laments the lack of anything resembling counterprogramming similar to My Best Friend’s Wedding, The Devil Wears Prada, or This Is the End that once greeted other Batman and/or Superman movies. Scott Mendelson somewhat plays the “bad cop,” partially due to the lack of competition and the presumption of a crushing-all-comers strength, amid otherwise cautious optimism, and approval of the film’s politics.

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