The summer movie season got off to a big start as X-Men Origins: Wolverine opened to big numbers. Matthew McConaughey’s latest romantic comedy, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, opened slightly weaker than expected with so-so numbers and 3-D toon, Battle for Terra, fizzled at the box office, not even making the top 10.

Wolverine sliced and diced all competition, opening at #1 with a strong $87M take, which was a couple of notches lower than my $95M forecast. As it stands now, Wolverine is the fourth best opening for a summer kick off movie. Only fellow Marvel superheroes have managed better openings. Take a look.

Spider-Man 3 – 2007 - $151.1M

Spider-Man – 2002 - $114.8M

Iron Man – 2008 - $98.6M

X-Men Origins: Wolverine – 2009 - $87M

The reviews for the movie have been mixed at best, with many critics outright slamming it. I’m not entirely sure why, I quite enjoyed it. You can read my full review under the blogs section of the site. Wolverine may have a rocky road in front of it as May is overloaded with big releases such as Terminator Salvation, Night at the Museum 2, Angels and Demons and Star Trek, which beams into theatres this Friday. Nonetheless, the film will breeze its way to the $200M mark and may wind up with a final gross in the neighborhood of $240M. Look for X-Men Origins: Wolverine to have a big drop next weekend, about 65% to bring in another $30M or so.

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, the latest rom com starring Matthew McConaughey got off to a decent start, grossing $15.3M and landing in 2nd place for the weekend. This was a notch below my prediction of $18M and the opening of his last 2 chick flicks, Fool’s Gold ($23.8M) and Failure to Launch ($24.4M). Apparently more women were seduced by Hugh Jackman’s super buff physique than originally anticipated. Ghosts should fare better next weekend when Captain Kirk and crew arrive at the multiplexes as I doubt there are that many women looking to climb aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise. With little competition from other romantic comedies in the coming weeks, Ghosts of Girlfriends Past may be able to pull in $80M by the end of its theatrical run.

The last of the new releases for the weekend, 3-D animated film, Battle for Terra, opened with a thud in 12th place with a measly $1.1M. This was right on with my $1M forecast, but in all fairness, I was being kind. I had a feeling it would open worse than that and more in line with animated dud, Delgo, which premiered to $500,000 this past December.

Among holdovers, last week’s champ, Obsessed starring Beyonce and Ali Larter dropped 57% (in line with my 60% call) to gross another $12.2M. The Fatal Attraction wannabe now stands at an impressive $47M total. Oscar nominees, Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx held on as The Soloist dropped an understandable 42% (I thought 45%) to earn another $5.6M. Based on a true story, The Soloist should end its run to the tune of $30M. To see how the rest of my predictions fared, check out the chart below.