Mayhem in May - Wolverine claws in

X-Men Origins: Wolverine ripped apart competition raking in $85 million in its first weekend. The collections are equal to those of X2: X Men united and way better than the first X-Men movie. In the process it neatly displaced Fast and Furious from the top position in the 2009 opening weekend chart. To add to the harvest, the movie also clawed in $73 million from the foreign markets.

Swine flu threats and the much worried about issue of the leaked workprint of the movie didn’t take away the enthusiasm from the fans. All the critics who gave this one a terrible rating will be hiding their faces in the shadows as the popularity is expected to rise in the coming days.

Made on budget of $150 million, X-Men Origins: Wolverine is the second most expensive movie in the franchise. I seriously doubt those numbers since the packaging doesn’t look or feel as big as X3 or X2. Not so hard to believe that Hugh Jackman was paid a whopping $20 million for the part. The producers who must have had a lot of trouble to pay that sum will now be glad to be paid back in full for the investment.