娱乐英语新闻:"Batman v. Superman" smashes records with 170 million U.S. dollars for Easter weekend debu

LOS ANGELES, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Zack Snyder-directed superhero film "Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice," is expected to rake in 170 million U.S. dollars in projected sales on the Easter weekend and is ranked at the first place in North America box office.

"Batman v. Superman," which debuted Friday, starring Henry Cavill as Clark Kent/Superman, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne/Batman, is also Warner Bros.' biggest ever superhero weekend opening.

This year's Easter fell on Sunday.

Audiences were eager to see the battle between Batman by Ben Affleck and Superman by Henry Cavill, which helped "Batman v. Superman" get the largest Easter opening, beating 2015's Easter film debut "Furious 7," which garnered 147.2 million dollars in ticket sales.

"Zootopia," last weekend's champion, slid to the second place for getting 23.1 million dollars in ticket earnings, and "My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2" opened at the third, with 18.1 million dollars in ticket sales, according to estimations by the studios and collated by comScore.

"Miracles From Heaven" and "The Divergent Series: Allegiant" tied at the fourth place, with 9.5 million dollars in earnings each.

"This year, Hollywood received a giant Easter basket full of cash," reckoned comScore movie industry analyst Paul Dergarabedian, who was quoted by local media reports as saying.