Reception
Superman II, like Superman, has received much praise. It holds an 88% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes, with the summary saying, "The humor occasionally stumbles into slapstick territory, and the special effects are dated, but Superman II meets, if not exceeds, the standard set by its predecessor." Roger Ebert, who gave the original film very high acclaim also praised Superman II, giving it four out of four stars, claiming that "Superman II begins in midstream, and never looks back..."
Superman II was a box office success scoring the highest-grossing opening weekend up to that time and became the 3rd highest grossing film of 1981. It grossed $108,185,706 in the US, reaching blockbuster status. The film also received recognition from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. It won Best Science Fiction Film. Christopher Reeve and Margot Kidder were nominated Best Actor and Best Actress, respectively. Ken Thorne also received a nomination for Best Music.
British cinema magazine Total Film named Terence Stamp's version of General Zod #32 on their 'Top 50 Greatest Villains of All Time' list (beating out the #38 place of Lex Luthor) in 2007. Pop culture website IGN placed General Zod at #30 on their list of the 'Top 50 Comic Book Villains' while commenting "Stamp is Zod" (emphasis in original).
Anti-smoking campaigners opposed the film as the largest sponsor of Superman II was the cigarette brand Marlboro, who paid $43,000 (approx £20,000), for the brand to be shown 22 times in the film. Lois Lane was shown as a chain smoker in the film, although she never smoked in the comic book version. A prop included a truck signwritten with the Marlboro logo, although actual vehicles for tobacco distribution are unmarked, for security reasons. This led to a Congressional investigation.
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