‘Spider-Man 2’ ropes in $92 million opening

By: 10 years ago

This image released by Sony Pictures shows Andrew Garfield and Dane DeHaan in “The Amazing Spider-Man 2.” AP

NEW YORK, USA— Spider-Man can still sling it at the box office.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” debuted with $92 million in North American theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was a solid opening for Sony’s Columbia Pictures, which has released five movies about Marvel’s web-slinging superhero in the last 14 years.

The release of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” essentially kicks off Hollywood’s summer season and its annual parade of sequels and spectacle. Marvel movies have regularly commenced summer moviegoing in recent years, and the “Spider-Man 2” opening begins the season with a business-as-usual blockbuster performance.

Last week’s No. 1 film, the female revenge comedy “The Other Woman,” starring Cameron Diaz, slid to a distant second with $14 million in its second weekend.

The rebooted “Spider-Man” franchise starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone isn’t performing quite as strongly as Sam Raimi’s trilogy with Tobey Maguire. On opening weekends, the Raimi films grossed, in order: $114.1 million, $88.2 million and $151.1 million.

The “The Amazing Spider-Man,” also directed by Marc Webb, opened on a Tuesday in 2012, making $62 million on its debut weekend and $137 million over its first six days.

The new sequel, which began rolling out overseas two weeks ago, is also doing huge international business. It has already grossed $161 million abroad, and it added another $116 million over the weekend.

That included $10.4 million from China, where it opened Sunday on a record 11,002 screens. And it set a record for Hollywood titles in India with a $6.5 million debut.

“Everywhere we opened just popped,” said Rory Bruer, head of domestic distribution for Sony.

Domestically, families made up 33 percent of the audience of the PG-13 “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” a high percentage for a superhero film.

“It did seem to have a very strong component to the film, which we felt was an opportunity,” Bruer said. “It also lends itself to a picture that will be around the market for a while, too.”

But as Hollywood’s summer rolls on, the competition gets stiffer. In two weeks, Warner Bros. opens the highly anticipated monster movie “Godzilla.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, said that shouldn’t pose problems for the Marvel juggernaut.

“In the summer, two weeks is a lot of time between blockbusters,” Dergarabedian said. “You don’t see this kind of consistency in a particular genre that often.”

“Spider-Man” follows Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” released by Disney, by just a month. (The “Captain America” sequel is still in the top 5, with $7.8 million in its fifth week.)

The marketplace made way for “Spider-Man” over the weekend with no other new wide releases. Sony’s “Heaven Is for Real” continued to appeal to faith-based audiences, hauling in $8.7 million in its third week.