FF2: RISE OF THE SULVER SURFER landed atop this weekend’s box office charts with an impressive $57.4 million. It beat FF1’s $56/1 mil by a hair, but had a lower per screen average.

Aside from the X-Men pictures, the norm for comic book franchises is to lose their audiences with subsequent movies, and Rise of the Silver Surfer is poised to follow suit, likely falling short of Fantastic Four’s $154.7 million final tally. Its retention level, though, should land in the success column as far as the genre is concerned.

Reated: Director Tim Story talks about making the movie.

Handy guide to the 10 Marvel movies in the pipeline.