When Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse hit theaters in mid-December 2018, it was regarded as a critically-acclaimed release that performed well albeit not exceptionally – bringing in $35.4 million in its first three days. However, in the years since then, appreciation for the feature has only expanded, and it earned tremendous clout winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Recognizing this love, it can't honestly be said that the immense success of the sequel, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, is all that surprising, but it is still pretty jaw-dropping that the new film more than tripled its predecessor's opening weekend numbers.
Check out the full Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis.
| TITLE | WEEKEND GROSS | DOMESTIC GROSS | LW | THTRS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse* | $120,500,000 | $120,500,000 | N/A | 4,313 |
| 2. The Little Mermaid | $40,600,000 | $186,207,067 | 1 | 4,320 |
| 3. The Boogeyman* | $12,300,000 | $12,300,000 | N/A | 3,205 |
| 4. Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 | $10,200,000 | $322,711,454 | 3 | 3,580 |
| 5. Fast X | $9,240,000 | $128,466,000 | 2 | 3,467 |
| 6. The Super Mario Bros. Movie | $3,350,000 | $566,277,000 | 4 | 2,344 |
| 7. About My Father | $2,100,000 | $8,824,093 | 6 | 2,464 |
| 8. The Machine | $1,750,000 | $8,708,000 | 5 | 2,409 |
| 9. You Hurt My Feelings | $769,814 | $3,001,134 | 8 | 912 |
| 10. Kandahar | $765,000 | $4,237,000 | 7 | 1,737 |
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Hype Is Very Real As The Animated Film Becomes An Instant Hit
For further context just how well, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is doing compared to Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse, one need only look at the latter's total haul for its entire box office run ($190.2 million) and realize that the former is 63 percent of the way to hitting that figure after just three days playing on the big screen. Worldwide, the new release has made $208.6 million so far (according to The Numbers), which is phenomenal when you realize that the record-setting 2018 hit made $375.5 million globally before it left cinemas. Needless to say, any prognostications for the film's performance based on the previous movie have gone right out the window.
In the context of 2023, it's the second best opening weekend of the year behind only Illumination Entertainment's The Super Mario Bros. Movie – which began April by making $146.4 million in its first Friday-to-Sunday. While that means that the film doesn't earn the designation of having the biggest debut for an animated feature in the calendar year, it is the most immediately successful film based on Marvel Comics, as Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse topped the numbers put up by James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($118.4 million) and Peyton Reed's Ant-Man: And The Wasp: Quantumania ($106.1 million).
With a production budget of $100 million, per The Hollywood Reporter, Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse is well on its way to becoming one of the biggest blockbuster success stories of 2023, and based on the response that the film has gotten, that's something it seems that everybody can be happy about. After social media reactions to the movie at the end of last month got fans hyped, the reviews last week only bolstered the buzz (I stand by my statement in my own Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse review that it's better than Into The Spider-Verse). At the end of its opening weekend, the movie is sporting a 95 percent approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and there's a 96 percent audience score to match it.
A huge opening weekend was really a must for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse because there is a whole lot of competition ready to square off with it as we get deeper into summer 2023. As I noted in my box office column last week, the month of June has new anticipated and/or popular franchise titles coming out just about every Friday, with the standouts including Steven Caple Jr.'s Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, Pixar's Elemental, Andy Muschietti's The Flash, and James Mangold's Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny.
Because of the clear appreciation that audiences are demonstrating for Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (and the fact that it's a movie that begs to be seen multiple times), there isn't a significant threat that it will experience a 60 percent-plus weekend-to-weekend drop in its second Friday-to-Sunday, but all of those other titles are going to attract eyeballs and they are aimed at the same general demographics. Needless to say, it will be interesting to see the numbers that the animated hit puts up in the coming weeks.
Serving As Counterprogramming To Across The Spider-Verse, The Boogeyman Scares Up A Solid Opening Weekend
With Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse always destined to become the #1 Movie In America to kick off June, 20th Century Studios opted to release Rob Savage's The Boogeyman as a bit of counterprogramming on Friday, and it performed well in its big screen debut (which wouldn't have even happened had it not been for Stephen King helping to convince the studio to not just put it out on Hulu). According to Variety, the film was made with a production budget in the $30-35 million range, so a $12.3 million opening weekend doesn't render it an instantly profitable release, but it's on the way there.
The Boogeyman first started earning buzz as a proper scare fest following its debut at CinemaCon, and the full reviews that have arrived since then only further emphasized that the movie continues the impressive run that horror has had in recent months. As far as opening weekend numbers are concerned, the Stephen King adaptation didn't do as well as Gerard Johnstone's M3GAN ($30.4 million) or Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise ($24.5 million), but both of those films were the most high profile new releases in their respective debuts and didn't come out in the midst of the summer blockbuster season.
Could The Boogeyman have done better with a release date closer to October, taking advantage of spooky season? It's a fair question (particularly after the horror movie bonanza that we saw last fall), and one that movie fans will continue to ask while tracking the film's box office performance in the weeks to come.
The Little Mermaid Crosses $300 Million Worldwide, While Fast X Crosses $600 Million
Following its terrific box office performance during the Memorial Day holiday at the end of May, Rob Marshall's The Little Mermaid certainly saw a lot of attention steered away from it this weekend thanks to Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, but the impact of the animated feature hasn't been devastating to the new live-action Disney remake. Not only did the film successfully avoid a 60 percent drop in its second weekend, the money earned from the last three days means that it has eclipsed $300 million worldwide – which means that it has surpassed Michael B. Jordan's Creed III for eighth place in the rankings for 2023.
Now sitting in fifth place on that same list is Louis Leterrier's Fast X. The Fast & Furious chapter has not been performing particularly well domestically (after just three weekends, it's already bringing in less than eight figures), but its performance overseas has made up for that lacking. The film has only made $128.5 million in the United States and Canada, but nearly 80 percent of ticket sales are happening overseas, and that has led to the film earning over $600 million thus far in its theatrical run.
How will things shake up in the Top 10 next week when Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts hits the big screen? Head back here to CinemaBlend next Sunday to find out, and plan your next trip to the theater with our 2023 Movie Release Calendar.
