"Wolverine" set to dominate pack at box office

-- "X-Men: The Last Stand" bowed with $122.9 million in May 2006, and grossed $234.4 million domestically and $459.4 million worldwide.

Directed by Gavin Hood -- who shot the Oscar-winning South African picture "Tsotsi" -- "Wolverine" has been tracking best in pre-release surveys with male youngsters. Yet its market profile is a bit more diffuse than a typical fanboy picture and suggests an opening like that of "Iron Man," were it not for problems from illegal downloading of an early pirated version of the film.

"We're not sure what the illegal downloads mean to the box office," Snyder said.

In addition to its piracy woes, "Wolverine" may be hampered by buzz on fan sites perhaps best characterized as neutral to negative. But is should surely help that the domestic box office market has been especially robust of late, with the industry notching five straight year-over-year upticks in recent weekends.

"Wolverine" also bows this week in 101 foreign territories in one of the studio's more ambitious recent day-and-date campaigns.

Two other wide openers are also set for North American release this weekend, both representing counterprogramming plays. Despite the long shadow "Wolverine" will cast over the marketplace, distributors discovered several years ago that the early start to summer breaks on many college campuses can lend an early-season heft to all sorts of younger-skewing pictures.

With that in mind, Warner Bros.' romantic comedy "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" will shrug off indifferent reviews and ring up teen millions or more -- mostly from young girls and some date-night biz -- while Lionsgate's 3-D animated feature "Battle for Terra" should see enough dads dragged to the multiplexes by young sons to fetch at least $5 million-$7 million.