After pulling in $21 million in Thursday night and midnight screenings, "Man of Steel" continued to fly, as its total grew to $56.1 million at the North American box office through Friday.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the latest Superman film has set its sights on an $122-125 million opening in North America - which would be a much stronger debut than 2006's "Superman Returns," which brought in $84.2 million in its first five days ("Superman Returns" opened on a Wednesday). The current record-holder for a June opening weekend is 2010's "Toy Story 3," with $110.3 million, though "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" had a higher three-day start with $127.8 million, according to Box Office Mojo. If "Man of Steel" outperforms expectations this Father's Day weekend, it could set a new June record.

The film opened with "mixed to average reviews, " according to Metacritic, where it scored a 55, and Rotten Tomatoes, where it scored 57 percent with critics. Audiences at Rotten Tomatoes were a bit kinder, with 82 percent of respondents liking it. Comic Book Resources' Erik Amaya said that "while it has many strengths to offer, the film is not a completely satisfying whole. But, at the very least, Superman finally gets to fight someone with his fists and that is definitely a satisfying thing to see."

"Man of Steel," which cost about $225 million to produce and another $150 million or more to market and release, stars Henry Cavill as Superman/Clark Kent, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as Zod, Kevin Costner as Jonathan Kent, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Russell Crowe as Jor-El, Ayelet Zurer as Lara Lor-Van, Antje Traue as Faora, Laurence Fishburne as Perry White, Christopher Meloni as Colonel Hardy, Harry Lennix as General Swanwick, Michael Kelly as Steve Lombard and Richard Schiff as Dr. Emil Hamilton. The film is directed by Zack Snyder and produced by Christopher Nolan.

Trailing behind "Man of Steel" was Sony's end-of-the-world comedy "This Is the End" with roughly $6.9 million. The R-rated film opened Wednesday and is expected to make $30 million by Sunday.