The acclaimed animated Marvel sequel more than surpassed Sony Animation’s all-time record in its opening weekend
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has easily become Sony Pictures Animation’s biggest box office hit of all time, grossing $51.7 million on opening day in 4,313 theaters and is now expected to gross over $113 million by its opening weekend -dollars, more than tripling the $35 million launch of its 2018 predecessor, Into the Spider-Verse
Prior to release, Across the Spider-Verse was projected to have an opening price of over $80 million, but that was thrown right out the window and into an interdimensional portal when the film previewed Thursday 17.3 million dollars, the second-highest total for an animated film of all time.
Across the Spider-Verse not only matches its predecessor’s opening weekend, but also gets more than double that from Sony Animation Record on the opening weekendthat was just $48.4 million that “Hotel Transylvania” earned in 2015. Given the film’s extremely strong word of mouth, it received an A on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes With a rating of 95% critics and 97% audiences, it wouldn’t be surprising if opening estimates climbed even higher to over $125 million thanks to a surge in ticket sales for Saturday and Sunday’s matinees.
In second place is Disney’s The Little Mermaid, which has garnered a respectable reputation among its mostly female audience and promises an industry-estimated $41 million in sales for its second weekend.
That result represents a decent 57% drop from the film’s $118 million three-day opening weekend and would give it a 10-day domestic total of $186 million, roughly in line with the domestic release of Disney’s Aladdin ‘ remake from 2019. But that may not be enough to garner a significant box office profit, as Little Mermaid struggled with a just $68 million overseas opening weekend. International numbers are published on Sunday morning.
Disney also released the Stephen King horror adaptation The Boogeyman this weekend through 20th Century Studios, grossing $4.8 million in 3,205 theaters. Industry estimates expect the film to gross $11 million in its opening weekend, below forecasts for a $15 million start versus the stated budget of $35 million.
Directed by Rob Savage: “The black manwas originally slated for a Hulu release but was pushed back to a theatrical release by Disney/20th Century. Response to the film was mildly positive: Rotten Tomatoes scored 60% from critics and 65% from audiences, which equates to a B- on CinemaScore.
Finally, Universal’s “Almost” movie even fell under the fifth weekend of Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.” 3,” which has raked in $10 million, bringing its domestic total to $322 million.
