It was a big weekend for Spider-Man: Homecoming , which scored around $117 million over its opening weekend. That’s good for the second best opening for a Spider-Man film ever (after the $151 million of Spider-Man 3) and, more importantly, dominated the The Amazing Spider-Man movies, nearly doubling the box-office gross of the first Andrew Garfield installment. It also comes in seventh place among all the Marvel Cinematic movies, but a slew of great reviews and an “A” Cinemascore should give it good legs over the rest of the summer, where it is the last superhero movie option until November.
Perhaps most impressive is that Homecoming rebounded without a big-name lead. Tom Holland is virtually unknown outside of his appearance in Captain America: Civil War. The draw here was not the actor, but the character and more importantly, the character’s addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is the best brand in Hollywood. It not only guarantees huge box office dollars, but it virtually guarantees quality. The MCU rarely puts out a stinker — only two of the films have not achieved a “fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes (The Incredible Hulk and Thor: The Dark World), and it was a close call even in those two cases. Marvel simply will not let a movie fail and for the Sony and the franchise, combining it with the MCU is the best thing to ever happen to it.
Not for nothing, but it also represents a huge comeback for Amy Pascal, the former head of Sony Studios who was fired after the Sony hack in 2014. She went on to start her own production company, Pascal Productions, the company behind Spider-Man: Homecoming. It will be interesting to see, however, whether Homecoming can sustain its own universe, with more Spider-Man movies, a Venom movie, an animated Spider-Man flick, and other associated properties.
In other box office news, Despicable Me 3 put up $37 million this weekend, a 48 percent drop but still good for second place. The movie has made $152 million after 10 days and with a very strong international box office, the Illumination franchise should have no problem generating more Minions and Despicable Me movies for another decade.
Baby Driver, the coolest movie of the summer, continues to benefit from positive reviews and great word of mouth, falling only 37 percent in its second weekend, scoring $13 million. After 10 days, the $40 million movie has already made $57 million and inspired talk of a sequel.
Wonder Woman, meanwhile, will simply not let up. It remains in the top five this weekend, adding another $9 million to push its total to $368 million, padding its leads over Batman vs. Superman and Suicide Squad among DCU films. While Patty Jenkins holds the record for highest-grossing live action film from a female director, she now has a shot to break the record for highest-grossing film for a female director, period, if Wonder Woman surpasses the $400 million of Frozen. It also looks good to pass Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 for the second highest grossing film of the year, behind only Beauty and the Beast.
The rest of the top ten was comprised of more holdovers. Transformers: The Last Knight continues to plummet, adding only $6 million to bring its total to $118 million (the last Transformers movie had crossed $300 million by this point). It’s made over $350 million worldwide, however, so it should have no problem eking out a profit. Cars 3 added $5.7 million to raise its total to $133 million (on top of a worldwide box office nearing $200 million). The House is a straight-up bomb for Will Ferrell and Amy Poehler. The $40 million film has only earned $18 million after two weeks, and it’s not likely to add much in foreign money.
However, there is more good news for The Big Sick, arguably the best movie of the summer. The Kumail Nanjiani film expanded into 326 theaters and earned $3.3 million. It’s poised to do very well when it goes wide next weekend. The Beguiled also expanded to 941 screens, and the Sofia Coppola film added a decent $2.2 million. It’s made over $7 million, so far, on a $10 million budget.
One final note: 47 Meters Down continues to be the quiet sleeper hit of the summer. The Mandy Moore movie came in at number nine this week, but it’s approaching $40 million on a $5 million budget, and it’s not even a Blumhouse Pic.
There’s still a few more weeks of the box-office summer before it starts to cool down after The Dark Tower in the first week of August. Next week sees the release of War for the Planet of the Apes and the horror film, Wish Upon, as well as the nationwide release of the aforementioned The Big Sick.
(Via Deadline, Box Office Mojo)
