BATMAN V SUPERMAN News Bits: Early Box Office Predictions, A Doomsday Actor Revealed, Ben Affleck Tweaked the Script?

We are only four weeks away from the release of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and with tickets set to go on sale Monday, box office predictions have begun to hit the web. According to Deadline, rival studios and tracking executives are projecting that the film will open with a $100-140 million opening weekend. The film will hit tracking boards on Thursday, so we’ll receive a more definite prediction then.

Of course, this is only an early number; often, a franchise movie will open higher than the initial projections. For example, Fox’s Deadpool was originally expected to open with $65-75M, but ended up with a huge $150M four-day weekend. So, expect Batman v Superman to open big – at the very least, it should beat out The Hunger Games‘ $152M debut as the biggest March opening weekend in history.

There are analysts who are projecting a particularly huge opening for Batman v Superman, with one telling Deadline, “These are two massive properties coming together.” The fact that the movie is opening on Good Friday doesn’t hurt, since a majority of schools will be closed that weekend.

Oh, and if you thought that this week’s news of an R-rated director’s cut coming to home video hurt the movie’s hype… Social media monitor RelishMix says that the #BatmanvSuperman conversation went up 60% on Twitter and Instagram, with 95% of the responses being positive about the news. How about that?

Doomsday has been confirmed to appear in Batman v Superman, and we now know at least one actor who played a role in bringing the character to life. Motion capture and voice actor Robin Atkin Downes confirmed on Twitter (via CBM) that he “helped” create Doomsday in the movie.

It’s unknown if Downes voices the character, provides the motion capture, or both. Also, with General Zod’s body being the source of the character in the film, will actor Michael Shannon be involved with Doomsday? We’ll find out soon.

Downes is no stranger to the DC Universe, as he has voiced characters in many of DC’s animated movies and video games. His credits with the company range from Justice League: Doom and Batman: Bad Blood to LEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham and Batman: Arkham Knight. So, he is a more than welcome addition to the DC Extended Universe.

Finally, we have a new rumor regarding the Batman v Superman script. The script was originally written by David Goyer in 2013, before Chris Terrio took over a few months later. However, if Us Weekly is to be believed, Batman actor Ben Affleck also played a role in crafting the screenplay.

According to the site, back when Batman v Superman was in production, Affleck “…would go into wardrobe and get all suited up for the day in his Batman suit. Then he would sit around reworking the script. Ben wasn’t thrilled with it and would find himself on multiple occasions fixing it the day of.” So, Affleck would go in and tweak the Batman v Superman script while wearing the Batsuit. Pretty cool, but keep in mind that this is still an unconfirmed rumor.

In addition to acting, Ben Affleck is an acclaimed writer and director. 1997’s Good Will Hunting, which was written by Affleck and Matt Damon, won an Oscar for Best Original Screenplay. Affleck also worked on the scripts for his first two directorial films, Gone Baby Gone and The Town, both of which earned critical praise. So, if he really did tweak the Batman v Superman script, that can only be a good thing.

Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is scheduled to hit theaters March 25th. The second installment in the DC Extended Universe stars Ben Affleck, Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Jesse Eisenberg, Diane Lane, Laurence Fishburne, Jeremy Irons, Holly Hunter and Gal Gadot. Zack Snyder directs from a script by Chris Terrio and David S. Goyer.