‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ blows away expectations
The second ‘Spider-Verse’ film opens with $120.5 million — higher than all but two ‘Spider-Man’ movies.
Hello! Welcome to The Box Office Report for the weekend of June 2-4, 2023.
1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Weekend gross: $120.5M
Total domestic gross: $120.5M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
A lot of people skipped seeing Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse when it hit theaters in 2018. A lot of people didn’t make that mistake with Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.
Fueled by glowing reviews and highly positive word of mouth, the sequel captured a $120.5 million opening weekend in North America, easily topping the $35.4 million that Into the Spider-Verse debuted with.
Across the Spider-Verse’s massive opening weekend haul is the third best for any Spider-Man movie, trailing just Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $260.1 million and Spider-Man 3’s $151.1 million. Across the Spider-Verse didn’t just outperform almost every Spider-Man movie — it also topped recent Marvel Cinematic Universe opening weekends like Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s $118.4 million.
The latest Spider-Verse film also had the sixth biggest opening weekend for an animated film, trailing Incredibles 2 ($182.6M), The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.3M), Finding Dory ($135M), Frozen 2 ($130.2M) and Toy Story 4 ($120.9M). When the official numbers come in on Monday, though, Across the Spider-Verse could very easily tick ahead of Toy Story 4.
I’m so happy to see Across the Spider-Verse crush its opening weekend like this. Yes, box office numbers don’t equal quality but they do send a message to studios about what kinds of films should be made. It still baffles me that Into the Spider-Verse scrounged together just $35.4 million for its opening weekend. Across the Spider-Verse’s debut shows that film connected with moviegoers since its release in 2018 and had people excited to see the next chapter in the story.
2. The Little Mermaid
Weekend gross: $40.6M
Total domestic gross: $186.2M
Last weekend: 1st
Percent drop: 58
The Little Mermaid is tracking almost identically to Disney’s live-action remake of Aladdin. The Little Mermaid pulled in $40.6 million its second weekend. Aladdin pulled in $42.8 million. The Little Mermaid sits at $186.2 million through two weekends. Aladdin sat at $186.5 million through two weekends. Neither of these films, though, had or have the box office power of The Lion King, which grossed $76.6 million its second weekend for a $351.9 million haul through that point.
3. The Boogeyman
Weekend gross: $12.3M
Total domestic gross: $12.3M
Last weekend: New release
Percent drop: NA
The Boogeyman was no match for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Among recent movies based on Stephen King’s stories, its opening weekend trails movies like Pet Sematary ($24.5 million), The Dark Tower ($19.2 million) and Doctor Sleep ($14.1 million), while not even coming close to the $123.4 million and $91.1 million that It and It: Chapter Two debuted with.
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Weekend gross: $10.2M
Total domestic gross: $322.7M
Last weekend: 3rd
Percent drop: 51
I don’t think Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has a shot at topping the $780.1 million worldwide haul of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. While the third and final (for now) Guardians film has held up remarkably well weekend to weekend, its weekend numbers are almost identical to what Vol. 2 did — while opening to $28 million less.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is now the 17th highest grossing MCU film in North America, passing the original Iron Man’s $318.6 million. It should bump past the original Guardians of the Galaxy ($333.7 million) and Spider-Man: Homecoming ($334.2 million) soon.
5. Fast X
Weekend gross: $9.2M
Total domestic gross: $128.5M
Last weekend: 2nd
Percent drop: 60
Yikes. Has the Fast & Furious franchise lost its juice? Fast X fell 60 percent from its second weekend, dropping behind Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The film has barely moved up the franchise’s box office charts, sitting at No. 9 on the domestic chart (ahead of just 2 Fast 2 Furious and The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift) and No. 7 on the worldwide chart. It has a long way to go before it gets close to the $1.51 billion grossed by Furious 7 and the $1.24 billion grossed by The Fast of the Furious.
Box office numbers via The Numbers based on Sunday estimates.
Next weekend
Can Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse hold off Transformers: Rise of the Beasts? If Across the Spider-Verse matches the soft 48 percent drop that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 saw its second weekend in theaters, it’ll gross roughly $60 million next weekend.
Recent Transformers movies have opened with $21.7 million (Bumblebee) and $44.7 million (Transformers: The Last Knight). The trio of Transformers movies before those two, though, did much better, with Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Transformers: Dark of the Moon and Transformers: Age of Extinction (I forgot how dumb all these titles were) all opening in the $95-$110 million range.
Will Rise of the Beasts perform like the newest movies in the franchise? Or will it bring those Transformers glory days back to the box office?
