‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’ Swings To Best Opening Of Summer YTD With $120M+ Beating ‘Guardians’ – Updated Box Office

SUNDAY AM: When Paramount lost Marvel to Disney, any even distribution of franchises among the major studios was disrupted. However, Sony’s reported $7M acquisition of Marvel’s Spider-Man franchise back in 1998 has continued to immensely pay off, no more evident than this weekend, as Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse posted an exceptional and $120.5M opening — one which tracking didn’t see coming, but exhibition did in advance ticket sales– making it the best start for a summer tentpole YTD (beating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3‘s $118.4M) and the third-best opening for a Spider-Man movie (after No Way Home‘s $260.1M and Spider-Man 3‘s $151.1M). Global start here for Spider-Verse is $208.6M, well above the $150M we forecast, with China delivering $17.3M.

Among all animated pic domestic openings, Spider-Verse is sixth behind Incredibles 2 ($182.6M), Super Mario Bros ($146.3M), Finding Dory ($135M), Frozen 2 ($130.2M) and Toy Story 4 ($120.9M). The Marvel sequel reps the best start ever for Sony Animation.

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RELATED: ‘Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse’ Review: An Expansive, Complex, And Colorful Web of Destiny For Miles Morales

Talk about growth in dollars and growth in audience for a subset of a major superhero franchise. But Across the Spider-Verse‘s domestic opening here is 241% ahead of the first movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s $35.3M. Reports EntTelligence on admissions this morning for Spider-Verse: “The film is estimated to pull in well over 9M patrons this weekend.  (Aside from Super Mario, this is the most attended three-day period for a film since last summer)”. It’s also a remarkable opening for an animated movie which is at an ungodly length of 2 hours and 20 minutes.

After Super Mario Bros delivered a huge Easter, look out for next year’s holiday, because that’s when part three of this Sony Animation franchise, Beyond The Spider-Verse, hits on March 29.

Sony knew this movie was always a linchpin for them, and have been shouting from the rooftops about it since CinemaCon April 2022. That’s when they showed off the first 15 minutes of the movie to exhibition — and that’s after they moved the release date from Oct. 7 last year to this weekend because of the Covid post-production logjam.

Producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller, as well as filmmakers Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, attempted a whole new animation style that would one-up the previous installment, which earned an Oscar for Best Animated Film. There’s no words to describe it, but it’s not rotoscoping. However, it has something to do with character lighting (reflecting different Spideys onscreen feelings) and redrawing over images, again to harken back to the look of the original Spider-Man comics.

Highlights of Sony’s campaign (arguably what will be their biggest movie of 2023) includes assembling a “Spider Society Ambassador Program.” What’s that? A program that recruited 200 celebrities, influencers, and fans across the globe into tubthumping the sequel to an audience of 994M. This included such people as Bad Bunny, Guillermo del Toro, Steph Curry, Rihanna, Beyonce, Tiffany Haddish, Priyanka and Nick Jonas. Highlights of how the studio rolled that out below:

Three promo partners created animated spots or custom created animated content. That included Burger King, Nike and Hyundai. Partners also spent over $20 million in outdoor media across the globe.

Nike/Jordan Brand took the Jordan Brand and merged its iconic style with Miles Morales. In the film, Miles wears both classic AJ1 shoes and a newly designed AJ1 HI OG “Next Chapter” shoe, which the Jordan Brand released limited editions for purchase. Those sold out within the hour of launch. They also purchased key billboards, including a 3D board in Times Square, and created an outdoor and digital campaign featuring Metro Boomin and his siblings.

The animated pic had an auto partner, which is unheard of with Hyundai Motors. Sony Pictures’ strategic car partner implemented a multi-dimensional marketing campaign across 25 markets. Filmmakers and Hyundai design teams teamed to create and integrate future mobility systems in the film’s 2099 Nueva York, and depict a flying version of Hyundai Motor’s Prophecy concept EV for the film. Sony Pictures and Hyundai Motor also collaborated on a brand new, animated TV commercial that featured Spider-Man, IONIQ 6, and IONIQ 5, with new music from the soundtrack. Hyundai did stunted executions in many markets. In the Shibuya area of Tokyo they dominated the area by purchasing 13 separate billboards. In London and Seoul they created an experiential build.

Burger King created a Spider-Verse meal featuring a red bun with black seeds, custom packaging, and a Kids Meal program. They have also transformed six locations around the world into the world of Spider-Verse, including fully re-theming select locations. The red bun launched on May 15 and within the week in the US, all major cities sold out of the bun.

Fortnight and Free Fire were the sequel’s digital gaming partners, reaching more than 400 million players per month. Their programs included custom skins of the pic, character inclusion, and clips from the film.

Sony teamed with Amazon to create a Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Alexa Theme Pack, in which Miles Morales is dropped into the “Alexa-verse.” Once enabled on an Alexa device, the Spider-Verse theme pack featured customized prompts with Spider-Man related responses, visuals, and audio bites from the movie, a 3D Miles Morales avatar, an AR video call Spider-Man mask, and a scan-for-tickets QR function.

Broadcast cross-promos included turning ESPN SportsCenter into “Spider-Center,” as NFL 49er George Kittle and ESPN’s Stan Verrett and Ashley Brew competed over who was the #1 Spider-Man fan.

On Cartoon Network, Spider-Mania took over, as kids amped up to see the pic were donning their Spider-gear, showing off Spider-abilities, etc.

There was an enormous outdoor advertising campaign around the globe, including, but not limited to, dynamic 3D anamorphic large-format digital screens showing Miles and Gwen breaking the plain and traversing through the Spider-Verse:

The sequel’s second trailer at the time of its drop clocked the most for a summer film with 148.6 million views in a 24-hour period, beating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (116.9 million) and The Flash (81.6 million). It was also the highest-viewed second trailer for all recent Marvel films in a 24-hour period.

Updated diagnostics on Spider-Verse: an A CinemaScore (surprise, surprise), which still isn’t bad next to Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s A+. An 82% definite recommendation from Comscore/Screen Engine PostTrak audiences is bigger than Spider-Man: Far Away From Home, Minions: Rise of Gru, and Sonic the Hedgehog, among others. Top cities were LA, NYC, Dallas, San Francisco and Chicago. Top theaters (for 2 day grosses) were AMC Burbank ($253K), AMC Empire NYC ($246K), AMC Century City ($225K), AMC Lincoln Square NYC ($221K), AMC Orange CA ($200K), and the Irvine Spectrum ($190K).

Saturday came in at $37.4M for Spider-Verse, -28% from Friday/previews’ $51.85M (revised), with Sunday factored at $31.25M. The movie played solid throughout all dayparts, per EntTelligence, with 31% of the traffic between 1 p.m.-5 p.m., 29% between 5 p.m.-8 p.m., and 23% after 8 p.m. Combined PLFs and Imax drove 33% of the weekend. Imax delivered $20M WW for Spider-Verse which reps the third-highest worldwide start for a Sony movie in Imax ever, and the second-highest animated pic opening of all-time for Imax behind Super Mario Bros’ $21M. Some 401 Imax U.S./Canada screens delivered $13.5M, or 11.2% of the weekend opening.

“’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,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of Imax, in a statement. “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.”

The top five Sony Imax openings are all from Spider-Man movies, with Spider-Verse joining Spider-Man: No Way Home, Far From Home, Homecoming and The Amazing Spider-Man.

Chart below—Fathom title popped into the top 10 after a one-night-only play, pushing Open Road/Briarcliff Entertainment’s Kandahar to No. 11 with $765K.

1) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) 4,313 theaters, Fri $51.8M, Sat $37.4M Sun $31.25M 3-day $120.5M/Wk 1

2.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) 4,320 theaters, Fri $11.8M (-69%) Sat $16.2M Sun $12.6M 3 day $40.6M (-57%) Total $186.2M/Wk 2

3.) The Boogeyman (20th/Dis) 3,205 theaters, Fri $4.8M, Sat $4.4M Sun $3.1m 3-day $12.3M/Wk 1

4.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (Dis) 3,580 (-360) theaters, Fri $2.9M (-48%), Sat $4.4M Sun $2.9M 3-day $10.2M (-51%) Total $322.7M/ Wk 5

5.) Fast X (Uni) 3,467 (-621) theaters Fri $2.6M (-59%) Sat $3.8M Sun $2.7M 3-day $9.2M (-60%) Total $128.4M/ Wk 3

6.) Super Mario Bros (Uni) 2,344 (-804) theaters, Fri $940K Sat $1.38M Sun $1M 3-day $3.35M (-48%), Total $566.2M/Wk 9

7.) About My Father (LG) 2,464 theaters, Fri $576K, Sat $883K Sun $641K 3-day $2.1M (-51%), Total $8.8M/Wk 2

8.) The Machine (Sony/Leg) 2,409 theaters, Fri $535K (-76%), Sat $700K Sun $515K 3 day $1.75M (-65%) Total $8.7M/ Wk 2

9.) SUGA-Agust D Tour ‘D-Day’ in Japan: Live VI (Fathom) Sat $1.24M/Wk 1

10.) You Hurt My Feelings (A24) 912 theaters Fri $195,7K (-59%) Sat $318K Sun $255K 3-day $769K (-45%), Total $3/Wk 2

MORE..

SATURDAY AM: How big is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse? With an opening day of $51.7M, it’s the biggest opening day of 2023 to date for a movie. The gross is beating Super Mario Bros.’ Wednesday of $31.7M, and even Disney/Marvel Studio’s opening day for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which was $48.1M.

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse‘s first day is the third-best day ever for a Spider-Man movie, ranking behind Spider-Man: No Way Home ($121.9M) and Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 ($59.8M), and bests a slew of other opening days in the Spidey franchise, including Tom Holland titles Spider-Man: Homecoming ($50.7M) and Far From Home ($39.2M), as well as the original 2002 Spider-Man ($39.4M), Spider-Man 2 ($40.4M), and Andrew Garfield’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($35.1M).

Across the Spider-Verse‘s opening day is also the third-highest for an animated film, after Incredibles 2 ($71.2M) and Finding Dory ($54.7M). The sequel’s day one is also the best ever for Sony Pictures Animation.

Even though rivals believe that the 3-day is north of $125M, there’s still a concern about front-loadedness with fanboys and a greater ease today, which will get Across the Spider-Verse to $113.5M. Talking about the pic’s tricky trajectory, one distribution source says, “It’s an animated film, it’s not an animated film, and it’s a Marvel film, it’s not a Marvel film.”

Great PostTrak audience exits prevail with 93% positive and an 82% recommend among general audiences. Still, guy-leaning at 63%, with 61% between 18-34 and the biggest demo turnout being 18-24 year olds at 40%. Very strong diversity demos, with 34% Latino and Hispanic, 27% Caucasian, 22% Black and 17% Asian/other. Across the Spider-Verse was strong everywhere, but most prominently in the East and West. PLF screens and Imax auditoriums rep 33% of the sequel’s ticket sales to date. Biggest theater in the country? The AMC Century City with $166K (including early shows).

Tracking had 20th Century Studios’ The Boogeyman between $15M-$17M. The $35M Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, and Dan Levine production is coming in at $11.5M, with 57% female leading, and 57% between 18-34 and 25-34 year olds the largest group at 32%.

While Disney was looking to counterprogram and go after young females (17-34) with this PG-13 title, it’s clear that Spider-Man is eating The Boogeyman‘s lunch, especially with Across the Spider-Verse attracting a very big Latino/Hispanic crowd, as well as 26% women under 25 (and who, along with guys over 25, gave the sequel its best grades at 94%). Boogeyman‘s demos were 35% Caucasian, 26% Latino and Hispanic, 24% Black, and 16% Asian/other. The Rob Savage-directed title played best in the South, South Central, and Midwest. The AMC Orange is the top-gossing theater in the country, with close to $9K for Friday, including early shows.

Spider-Verse is driving a total box office weekend of $209M, +72% from the same first weekend in June a year ago, and +20% from the same frame in 2019. That was when Warner Bros/Legendary’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters led the box office with $47.7M.

The chart:

1) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) 4,313 theaters, Fri $51.7M, 3-day $113.5M/Wk 1

2.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) 4,320 theaters, Fri $11.8M (-69%) 3 day $41.5M (-57%) Total $187.2M/Wk 2

3.) The Boogeyman (20th/Dis) 3,205 theaters, Fri $4.8M, 3-day $11.5M/Wk 1

4.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, 3,580 (-360) theaters, Fri $2.9M (-48%), 3-day $10.2M (-51%) Total $322.7M/ Wk 5

5.) Fast X (Uni) 3,467 (-621) theaters Fri $2.6M (-59%) 3-day $9M (-61%) Total $128.2M/ Wk 3

6.) Super Mario Bros (Uni) 2,344 (-804) theaters, Fri $920K (-46%) 3-day $3.35M (-48%), Total $566.2M/Wk 9

7.) About My Father (LG) 2,464 theaters, Fri $580K, 3-day $1.96M (-55%), Total $8.6M/Wk 2

8.) The Machine 2,409 theaters, Fri $535K (-76%), 3 day $1.77M (-65%) Total $8.7M/ Wk 2

9.) Kanadahar (BR/OR) 1,737 (-368) theaters,Fri $225k (-76%) 3-day $750K (-68%) Total $4.2M/Wk 2

10.) You Hurt My Feelings (A24) 912 theaters Fri $195,7K (-59%) 3-day $692K (-50%), Total $2.9M/Wk 2

FRIDAY MIDDAY: It used to be that studios would avoid the frame after Memorial Day weekend, as it was a post-holiday easing period for moviegoing. Not anymore.

Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is poised to post box office numbers like it’s a live-action Marvel superhero movie. After clocking the second-best previews ever for an animated movie, the pic from directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson is looking at $40M+ day today (including those previews) and a 3-day that very well could hit $100M at 4,313 theaters.

Rivals bullishly see the opening well into the $110M+ range, but the unpredictable nature with Spider-Verse is how fanboy-loaded it could be with PLF and Imax ticket sales. Even if the animated film settles in the high-$90M range, it’s still a massive success next to the original 2018 movie’s debut, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at $35.3M.

RelishMix exclaims about the social media buzz: “Spider-Verse positive chatter is spilling over into Super Mario Bros mass-audience — with excitement for Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman, cross-references to live-action Spidey, added enthusiastic praise for the look of the film. MCU divers are plunging into the franchise expansion scenarios and storylines for the next animated and live films — with a noticeable absence of questions about when this will stream.”

Across the Spider-Verse‘s stats on social media are above the levels of the 2018 version by 15%, now at 665.1M across on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok combined. This animated franchise runs on unique channels from the live-action at 1.85M fans. By comparison, the past two live-action Spider-Man films hit 1B SMU social media universe, led by the epic weekend for No Way Home ($260.1M/1.2B SMU). Fans and super-fans are reposting materials online at a massive viral rate of 47:1, which is mind-blowing per RelishMix.

Gwen Stacy aka Steinfeld counts 32.7M fans for the pic’s campaign out of 68.3M total for the cast overall, which includes Shameik Moore at 367K and Jake Johnson at 1.6M.

Disney owns spots 2, 3 and 4 on the chart. Weekend 2 of The Little Mermaid is seeing around $12M today, for a $42M-$44M second weekend at 4,320 theaters, -54% at the high-end, for a 10-day total of $189.7M. Aladdin eased 53% with a $42.8M second weekend in 2019, which got it to $185.5M over the same point in time.

Disney/Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 at 3,580 theaters is seeing a fifth Friday of $3M, 3-day of $10.5M, -49%, for a running total of $322.9M. Great holds here by Little Mermaid and GOTG3.

Disney and 20th Century Studios’ The Boogeyman is eyeing $4.5M today for a $10M+ weekend at 3,205 theaters.

Universal’s Fast X is booked at 3,467 and looking at a third Friday of $2.4M, 3-day of $8.3M, -64%, and running total by Sunday of $127.5M.

UPDATED FRIDAY AM after THURSDAY EXCLUSIVE: Sony is reporting that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse previews came in at $17.35M, still the second highest for an animated film after The Incredibles 2‘s $18.5M. Exits from Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak from last night’s heavy fan turnout is 5 stars.

General audience turnout last night on PostTrak for Spider-Verse was 39% guys under 25, 28% guys over 25, 21% women under 25 and 11% women over 25. A 79% definite recommend with a very diverse turnout with Hispanic and Latino audiences repping 33% of the crowd, Caucasians 30%, Black 20% and Asian 11%. Parents and kids combined represented 16% of the preview night audience. Boys under 12 outweighed girls, 63% to 37% with 64% being between 7-12.

Meanwhile, Disney’s pivot of 20th Century Studios’ PG-13 horror pic Boogeyman from Hulu to the big screen grossed $1.1M. A little lighter than the previews of recent horror movies, i.e. Evil Dead Rise ($1.9M) and Smile ($2M), though they were R-rated. PG-13 M3GAN did $2.75M. The Rob Savage-directed movie is booked at 3,205 locations and currently has a 74% Rotten Tomatoes verified moviegoer score and 2 1/2 stars on PostTrak. The pic’s outlook is around $15M for the weekend.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid led all films in regular release yesterday with $6.8M (-17% from Wednesday) ending its week with an estimated $145.7M at 4,320 theaters, +2% ahead of the first week of Aladdin. The studio’s MCU title Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did $1.58M, -22% from Wednesday, for a week 4 of $32.6M, running total of $312.1M at 3,940 theaters. Universal’s Fast X, booked at 4,088 theaters, minted $1.4M yesterday, -22% from Wednesday, for a running cume of $119.4M. Second week was $34.3M. Uni’s Super Mario Bros had $556K, -14% for a running cume of $562.8M, eighth week of $10.2M at 3,148. Fifth place belonged to Lionsgate’s About My Father with $300K, -22%, and a first week of $6.7M. There was a time when stand-up comedian’s forays onto the big screen did better, undiluted by streaming: Dane Cook’s Employee of the Month, also from Lionsgate, posted a first week of $14.3M back in October 2006.

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE: Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is doing some serious business tonight according to box office sources, accumulating $16M off previews that began at 3PM at 3,562 theaters. That’s the second best preview night ever for an animated movie after Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2 ($18.5M) from June 2018. Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4, with $12M, is now the third best animated movie in previews at the domestic box office.

The preview cash for Across the Spider-Verse alone is 4.5x more than what the first 2018 animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, did on its Thursday night, which was $3.5M before a $12.6M Friday and $35.3M 3-day opening.

Now, the question remains how front-loaded Across the Spider-Verse is; hence it’s too early to comp it to Incredibles 2. That Pixar sequel wound up posting a $71.2M first day, 26% of that number from Thursday previews. Incredibles 2 owns the opening weekend record for an animated movie at $182.6M. Opening stateside projections are wild for Across the Spider-Verse ranging from $75M-$90M. Even on the low-end, Across the Spider-Verse‘s 3-day will be more than double the first pic’s opening weekend, still commendable.

What makes the sequel’s box office hard to peg: It’s a Marvel animated movie, which is a rare breed, not to mention it’s one of the longest running animated films of all-time with a runtime of 140 minutes. Among those animated movies with long runtimes, Across the Spider-Verse ties with Funimation/Kyoto Animation’s Violent Evergarden in seventh place. The animated pic with the longest runtime is Sunao Katabuchi’s In This Corner (And Other Corners) of the World at 168 minutes.

Great diagnostics as the weekend heats up for Across the Spider-Verse at 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and RT audiences already giving it 97%. We’ll have more in the AM.

The Phil Lord-Christopher Miller-Amy Pascal-Avi Arad-Christina Steinberg animated sequel also has bragging rights when compared to other live-action Spidey-verse properties, beating the preview night cash of Spider-Man: Homecoming ($15.4M), Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($11.6M), Venom ($10M), and Spider-Man 3 ($10M).

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