Weekend Box Office Results: Across the Spider-Verse Scores Second-Biggest Opening of the Year

Weekend Box Office Results: Across the Spider-Verse Scores Second-Biggest Opening of the Year

The animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse may be the lowest grossing Spider-Man film (or Spider-Man-adjacent film, like the Venoms) since 2002, but it is also the one holding the Oscar. Not only that, but it holds the highest rating with critics on the Tomatometer, Certified Fresh at 97%, and its reputation has certainly been elevated in the years since its release in 2018. This weekend, its sequel opened with one of the longest running times ever for an animated film at 140 minutes. But it also saw one of the biggest sequel bumps ever as well. King of the Crop:...

The animated Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse may be the lowest grossing Spider-Man film (or Spider-Man-adjacent film, like the Venoms) since 2002, but it is also the one holding the Oscar. Not only that, but it holds the highest rating with critics on the Tomatometer, Certified Fresh at 97%, and its reputation has certainly been elevated in the years since its release in 2018. This weekend, its sequel opened with one of the longest running times ever for an animated film at 140 minutes. But it also saw one of the biggest sequel bumps ever as well. King of the Crop: Across the Spider-Verse Scores Second-Biggest Opening of 2023 Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opened to the second-best Thursday “preview” ever for an animated film with $17.35 million. Only Incredibles 2 did better with $18.5 million. (The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened on a Wednesday and did not have previews.) That $17 million is folded into what became the best opening day of 2023 with $51.7 million, beating Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’s $48.1 million. (Again, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has the best Friday of the year with $54.8 million, its third day of release.) Spider-Man’s Thursday and Friday led to a opening weekend of $120.5 million for the Spider-Verse, putting it in league with some of the most boosted sequel events we have seen in the past 40 years. The 2018 film opened in December to just $35.3 million and went on to gross $190.2 million. That is a 341% increase from the first film. Taking out of the equation follow-ups that built anticipation over a decade or more, like Top Gun: Maverick and Hannibal, here are some of the highest increases we have ever seen after word-of-mouth and discovery took over. Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (475.17%) Scream 2 (418.15%) Pitch Perfect 2 (366.21%) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (341.35%) The Matrix Reloaded (230.26%) The Dark Knight (224.98%) Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (212.04%) A Nightmare On Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (209.92%) Die Hard 2 (206.03%) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (205.05%) Elm Street 3 was more the result of a much wider release than a lot of fan love for Freddy’s Revenge at the time, and Pitch Perfect 2’s percentile is based off the original’s wide expansion in its second week. (The first film initially opened to $5.1 million in 335 theaters.) That is still an impressive list to be a part of. Other 200% sequel increases include Crocodile Dundee II and Rambo: First Blood Part II (also both the result of massive theater increases for their sequels) as well as Insidious: Chapter Two. $113 million also bests DC’s Wonder Woman as the highest opening ever for the first weekend in June. Worth noting that the only film since 2016 to open over $100 million in its first three days and not get itself to $300 million was this year’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Across the Spider-Verse is not going to have that kind word-of-mouth, and it feels like it could stay No. 1 for a second weekend, even with the new Transformers film debuting next week. The Top 10 and Beyond: Fast X Drops Hard, New Releases Fail to Impress Last week’s No. 1, The Little Mermaid , has been having a positive week after some cautious signs in its estimate decline its first few days. With $40.6 million this weekend, the live-action remake is over $186 million and continues to pace closely (for the time being) with 2019’s Aladdin, which had a $42.8 million second weekend and a $185.5 million 10-day haul. Anything above $20 million next week will keep it on a $300+ million pace. Anything below and it may find itself closer to The Matrix Reloaded’s pace, which saw that film end up just over $280 million domestic. It is Mermaid’s international total that has to be more concerning to Disney. At just $78.9 million entering the wee...