Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse swung into the box office, surpassing all expectations with an exceptional opening weekend, grossing $120.5 million domestically. It’s the third best opening for a Spider-Man movie and surpasses the opening weekend for much anticipated film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which grossed $118.4 million.
Across the Spider-Verse has grossed $208.6 million globally, well above the projected $150 million, earning $17.3 million in China alone.
The second installment of Sony’s animated spider-verse has made its name as the sixth highest grossing animated domestic opening and marks the best start ever for Sony Animation. The sequel’s domestic opening is 241% ahead of Into the Spider-Verse, which grossed $35.3 million. Aside from the Super Mario Bros movie, Across the Spider-Verse is expected to see the most attended 3-day weekend for a film since last summer.
According to producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Across the Spider-Verse boasts an entirely new animation style that will out-do its predecessor, which earned an Oscar for Best Animated Film. The animation relies on character lighting to differentiate the Spider-Men and redrawing over images in the style of the original Spider-Man comics.
Sony’s massive promotion campaign for the film seems to have paid off. The company teamed up with such celebrity names as Bad Bunny, Guillermo del Toro, Beyonce, and Rihanna, as well as working with Burger King, Nike, and Hyundai to roll out specialty content.
Imax CEO Rich Gelfond has this to say about the film:
“With Spider-Verse, the film’s incredible creative team and Sony have created one of the most visually dazzling franchises in cinema, and we are excited to see audiences overwhelmingly choose IMAX to experience it… Both from Hollywood and thriving international film industries like Japan, animation has emerged as a powerful engine of growth for our global box office, and we are focused on capitalizing on this opportunity as filmmakers continue to raise the bar for the genre.”
Here it the Top 10 for this weekend’s domestic box office:
1) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse: 3-day $120.5M/Wk 1
2.) The Little Mermaid: 3-day $40.6M / Total $186.2M/Wk 2
3.) The Boogeyman: 3-day $12.3M/Wk 1
4.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3: 3-day $10.2M / Total $322.7M/ Wk 5
5.) Fast X: 3-day $9.2M / Total $128.4M/ Wk 3
6.) Super Mario Bros: 3-day $3.35M / Total $566.2M/Wk 9
7.) About My Father: 3-day $2.1M / Total $8.8M/Wk 2
8.) The Machine: 3 day $1.75M / Total $8.7M/ Wk 2
9.) SUGA-Agust D Tour ‘D-Day’ in Japan: Live VI: Sat $1.24M/Wk 1
10.) You Hurt My Feelings: 3-day $769K / Total $3/Wk 2