Across The Spider-Verse’ Weaving $40M+ Friday With A Shot At $100M Weekend – Updated Box Office

FRIDAY MIDDAY: It used to be that studios would avoid the frame after Memorial Day weekend, as it was a post-holiday easing period for moviegoing. Not anymore.

Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is poised to post box office numbers like it’s a live-action Marvel superhero movie. After clocking the second-best previews ever for an animated movie, the pic from directors Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson is looking at $40M+ day today (including those previews) and a 3-day that very well could hit $100M at 4,313 theaters.

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Rivals bullishly see the opening well into the $110M+ range, but the unpredictable nature with Spider-Verse is how fanboy-loaded it could be with PLF and Imax ticket sales. Even if the animated film settles in the high-$90M range, it’s still a massive success next to the original 2018 movie’s debut, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at $35.3M.

RelishMix exclaims about the social media buzz: “Spider-Verse positive chatter is spilling over into Super Mario Bros mass-audience — with excitement for Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy aka Spider-Woman, cross-references to live-action Spidey, added enthusiastic praise for the look of the film. MCU divers are plunging into the franchise expansion scenarios and storylines for the next animated and live films — with a noticeable absence of questions about when this will stream.”

Across the Spider-Verse‘s stats on social media are above the levels of the 2018 version by 15%, now at 665.1M across on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and TikTok combined. This animated franchise runs on unique channels from the live-action at 1.85M fans. By comparison, the past two live-action Spider-Man films hit 1B SMU social media universe, led by the epic weekend for No Way Home ($260.1M/1.2B SMU). Fans and super-fans are reposting materials online at a massive viral rate of 47:1, which is mind-blowing per RelishMix.

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Gwen Stacy aka Steinfeld counts 32.7M fans for the pic’s campaign out of 68.3M total for the cast overall, which includes Shameik Moore at 367K and Jake Johnson at 1.6M.

Disney owns spots 2, 3 and 4 on the chart. Weekend 2 of The Little Mermaid is seeing around $12M today, for a $42M-$44M second weekend at 4,320 theaters, -54% at the high-end, for a 10-day total of $189.7M. Aladdin eased 53% with a $42.8M second weekend in 2019, which got it to $185.5M over the same point in time.

Disney/Marvel Studios’ Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3 at 3,580 theaters is seeing a fifth Friday of $3M, 3-day of $10.5M, -49%, for a running total of $322.9M. Great holds here by Little Mermaid and GOTG3.

Disney and 20th Century Studios’ The Boogeyman is eyeing $4.5M today for a $10M+ weekend at 3,205 theaters.

Universal’s Fast X is booked at 3,467 and looking at a third Friday of $2.4M, 3-day of $8.3M, -64%, and running total by Sunday of $127.5M.

UPDATED FRIDAY AM after THURSDAY EXCLUSIVE: Sony is reporting that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse previews came in at $17.35M, still the second highest for an animated film after The Incredibles 2‘s $18.5M. Exits from Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak from last night’s heavy fan turnout is 5 stars.

General audience turnout last night on PostTrak for Spider-Verse was 39% guys under 25, 28% guys over 25, 21% women under 25 and 11% women over 25. A 79% definite recommend with a very diverse turnout with Hispanic and Latino audiences repping 33% of the crowd, Caucasians 30%, Black 20% and Asian 11%. Parents and kids combined represented 16% of the preview night audience. Boys under 12 outweighed girls, 63% to 37% with 64% being between 7-12.

Meanwhile, Disney’s pivot of 20th Century Studios’ PG-13 horror pic Boogeyman from Hulu to the big screen grossed $1.1M. A little lighter than the previews of recent horror movies, i.e. Evil Dead Rise ($1.9M) and Smile ($2M), though they were R-rated. PG-13 M3GAN did $2.75M. The Rob Savage-directed movie is booked at 3,205 locations and currently has a 74% Rotten Tomatoes verified moviegoer score and 2 1/2 stars on PostTrak. The pic’s outlook is around $15M for the weekend.

Disney’s The Little Mermaid led all films in regular release yesterday with $6.8M (-17% from Wednesday) ending its week with an estimated $145.7M at 4,320 theaters, +2% ahead of the first week of Aladdin. The studio’s MCU title Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 did $1.58M, -22% from Wednesday, for a week 4 of $32.6M, running total of $312.1M at 3,940 theaters. Universal’s Fast X, booked at 4,088 theaters, minted $1.4M yesterday, -22% from Wednesday, for a running cume of $119.4M. Second week was $34.3M. Uni’s Super Mario Bros had $556K, -14% for a running cume of $562.8M, eighth week of $10.2M at 3,148. Fifth place belonged to Lionsgate’s About My Father with $300K, -22%, and a first week of $6.7M. There was a time when stand-up comedian’s forays onto the big screen did better, undiluted by streaming: Dane Cook’s Employee of the Month, also from Lionsgate, posted a first week of $14.3M back in October 2006.

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE: Sony Animation’s Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is doing some serious business tonight according to box office sources, accumulating $16M off previews that began at 3PM at 3,562 theaters. That’s the second best preview night ever for an animated movie after Disney/Pixar’s Incredibles 2 ($18.5M) from June 2018. Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 4, with $12M, is now the third best animated movie in previews at the domestic box office.

The preview cash for Across the Spider-Verse alone is 4.5x more than what the first 2018 animated movie, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse, did on its Thursday night, which was $3.5M before a $12.6M Friday and $35.3M 3-day opening.

Now, the question remains how front-loaded Across the Spider-Verse is; hence it’s too early to comp it to Incredibles 2. That Pixar sequel wound up posting a $71.2M first day, 26% of that number from Thursday previews. Incredibles 2 owns the opening weekend record for an animated movie at $182.6M. Opening stateside projections are wild for Across the Spider-Verse ranging from $75M-$90M. Even on the low-end, Across the Spider-Verse‘s 3-day will be more than double the first pic’s opening weekend, still commendable.

What makes the sequel’s box office hard to peg: It’s a Marvel animated movie, which is a rare breed, not to mention it’s one of the longest running animated films of all-time with a runtime of 140 minutes. Among those animated movies with long runtimes, Across the Spider-Verse ties with Funimation/Kyoto Animation’s Violent Evergarden in seventh place. The animated pic with the longest runtime is Sunao Katabuchi’s In This Corner (And Other Corners) of the World at 168 minutes.

Great diagnostics as the weekend heats up for Across the Spider-Verse at 95% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and RT audiences already giving it 97%. We’ll have more in the AM.

The Phil Lord-Christopher Miller-Amy Pascal-Avi Arad-Christina Steinberg animated sequel also has bragging rights when compared to other live-action Spidey-verse properties, beating the preview night cash of Spider-Man: Homecoming ($15.4M), Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($11.6M), Venom ($10M), and Spider-Man 3 ($10M).

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