Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse blew past expectations this weekend with an estimated opening of $120.5 million.
The past few months have been really good to animated family films with titles like Puss in Boots: The Last Wish and The Super Mario Bros. Movie coming out and making a killing. That trend continues this weekend as Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse came out and blew past expectations with an estimated opening take of $120.5 million. The film was first tracking for a mid $80 million bow, but in our predictions from Thursday, we saw the anticipation for this one and knew it would over-perform. Now keep in mind, Sunday numbers are just projections the studios make, and they tend to go modest, so it is possible that when final numbers are reported on Monday, that number could soar even higher.
For those keeping track, that number represents a massive $85 million improvement over the first films $35.3 million opening, and with word of mouth being as positive as it currently is, I can see Across The Spider-Verse outperforming the originals $190.2 million domestic and $384.2 million worldwide gross. If nothing else, this movie has impressed people so much that I genuinely can not wait to see how Spider-Man: Beyond The Spider-Verse does when it is released on March 29, 2024. You can check out our own Chris Bumbray’s glowing 9/10 review here.
Second place will belong to the second week of The Little Mermaid easing 58% from its opening with an estimated $40.6 million. That is actually a pretty decent hold for a film as divisive as this which is also facing some pretty stiff competition. The success of this film is strictly a North America thing as the film is tanking pretty bad outside in international markets, so while we write positive things about it here, the bigger story is that with a $250 million budget and an over $200 million marketing spend, I seriously doubt The Little Mermaid will be a money maker for Disney when all is said and done, but don’t worry we still have a bunch of Disney Live Action Remakes coming soon to theaters over the next few years, if they can reign in those budgets, these films can be the money makers they were expecting them to be.
Third place belongs to the new release film The Boogeyman with an estimated $12.3 million, which features a $35 million budget before marketing costs. Considering the film was originally meant to just drop on Hulu, I guess any box office tally is gravy as the film has received far more press than it would have had it just dropped on Hulu as I agree with Quentin Tarantino when he says it is like streaming movies don’t even exist.
Fourth and fifth place belong to Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 with an estimated $10.2 million and Fast X with an estimated $9.2 million. That finish continues the weeks long flip flop the two sequel’s have been having as it seems word of mouth for Guardians is stronger than that of Fast X’s.
Spots six through eight go to your holdovers with The Super Mario Bros. Movie continuing its impressive run with another $3.3 million added to its over half a billion domestic take while the battle of the comedian led films Sebastian Maniscalco’s About My Father and Bert Kresicher’s The Machine saw the pair flip flop from their opening weekends with Maniscalco’s About My Father claiming victory this weekend in seventh place with $2.1 million while The Machine took in $1.7 million. These films will pry have much better plays at home when more of their respective fan bases see the poster while scrolling through a list of things to watch and decide to give them a try.
Coming in ninth place is something I must admit, I have no idea what it is! Suga: Live From Japan took in $1.2 million in just a single day when Fathom Events aired this live concert in 835 locations nationwide. From what I am gathering, this is a new K-Pop sensation and those numbers clearly indicate some strong stateside appeal. Rounding out the top ten is the Julia Louis-Dreyfus starring You Hurt My Feelings pulling in $769,814.
Were you part of the masses who went and saw Spider-Man this weekend? If so, let us know what you thought in the comments section and don’t forget to check out our weekly poll where we ask What is your Favorite Animated Super-Hero Movie?