Warner Bros. Pictures' Superman Returns opened with $21 million on Wednesday. The movie was shown in 3,915 theatres giving it a $5,368 take per screen. The tally includes the Tuesday night screenings where the film technically opened a few hours before Wednesday. The official box-office total of $21,015,000 ranks the film as the 8th biggest opening movie for a Wednesday.

The Wednesday opening record is held by Spider-Man 2 which took in over $40 million in 2004.

Superman Returns, directed by Bryan Singer, stars Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint, Parker Posey, Sam Huntington, Kal Penn and Kevin Spacey.

Following a mysterious absence of several years, the Man of Steel comes back to Earth in the epic action-adventure, Superman Returns, a soaring new chapter in the saga of one of the world's most beloved superheroes. While an old enemy plots to render him powerless once and for all, Superman faces the heartbreaking realization that the woman he loves, Lois Lane, has moved on with her life. Or has she? Superman's bittersweet return challenges him to bridge the distance between them while finding a place in a society that has learned to survive without him. In an attempt to protect the world he loves from cataclysmic destruction, Superman embarks on an epic journey of redemption that takes him from the depths of the ocean to the far reaches of outer space.

Superman Returns was released June 28th, 2006 and stars Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey, James Marsden, Parker Posey, Frank Langella, Sam Huntington, Eva Marie Saint. The film is directed by Bryan Singer.