Everyone's Hero opened in third place with $6.15 million.  Starz Animation, the company that was formed by Liberty Media after it was purchased from IDT- will release Space Chimps and Sheepish in 2007 and 2008 respectively.

UPDATED: Reuters distributed a story about the film and the original director Christopher Reeve.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - It is a fitting tribute to a truly super man. Christopher Reeve's last film project, the animated adventure "Everyone's Hero," debuts in theaters on Friday, nearly two years after the "Superman" actor's death.

The paralyzed star took the job of directing the kids' animated movie, and shepherded it through screenwriting and development before he died in 2004 from cardiac arrest, leaving the movie unfinished.

In Hollywood, most films that lose their director midway through production get shelved indefinitely, but in a testament to Reeve's "never say quit" personality, work on "Everyone's Hero" continued.

The Depression-era movie centers on a baseball-loving boy named Yankee Irving who, despite his best efforts, can't hit a ball. But much like Reeve's determination to overcome the spinal injury that left him a quadriplegic, the boy refuses to give up his dream of playing in the big leagues.

"Chris's focus was to make that movie in one way or another, and we pursued that no matter what," said producer Ron Tippe. "It meant a great deal to us to deliver his vision."

Reeve rose to stardom playing Superman in 1978's action movie of the same name. He played the superhero in three sequels, and it became his signature role.

But a 1995 horseback-riding accident at age 42 left him paralyzed from the neck down, confined to a wheelchair and dependent on mechanical assistance to breathe. Still, he never quit working.

He and his wife, Dana Reeve, became leading advocates for victims of paralysis and spinal cord injuries, and they lobbied the U.S. Congress on behalf of stem cell research. Dana Reeve died this past March of cancer.

Despite his injuries, Reeve continued appearances on television shows like "Smallville," and he directed TV movies "In the Gloaming" and "The Brooke Ellison Story."

One movie idea brought to Reeve was a bedtime story called "Everyone's Hero," and he and the producers recruited veteran sitcom writer Rob Kurtz ("Cosby" and "Grace Under Fire") to develop a screenplay.