Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man easily topped the weekend box office with an estimated total of $65 million. The reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, which cost $220 million to produce, has earned $140 million domestically and has now amassed a worldwide total of $341 million, paving the way for the next two films in the trilogy starring Andrew Garfield. Spidey didn’t get a lot of help from Oliver Stone’s Savages, which debuted at #4 with a mediocre $16.1 million. But with the aid of some strong holdovers, the box office was up 23% from the same weekend last year, when Transformers: Dark of the Moon led the way with $47.1 million.
Spider-Man managed to post a 15% gain from Friday to Saturday, an indication that families were finding the film attractive. Families did in fact make up about 25% of the audience, with boys (65%) outnumbering girls (35%) among the children attending. The audience for the Spidey reboot was 58% male with 54% of those attending 25 and older. In spite of the film’s innovative use of 3-D, the extra-dimensional format accounted for only 44% of the film’s total. IMAX showings however managed to account for a full 10% of the film’s opening week take.
While the new Spider-Man film has scored a solid opening that appears to be firmly in the upper end of expectations that ranged from $125 million to $150 million, its success was hardly overwhelming. The reboot’s six day total of $140 million was smaller than those of any of the films from the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy after six days, ($144.1 million, $180.1 million, and $176.2 million for the 3 films respectively). The Amazing Spider-Man’s solid "A-" CinemaScore (even better "A" among those under 25) should result in continued success at the box office, at least until The Dark Knight Returns opens on July 20th. The two hundred million dollar barrier should present no problem for the first film in the rebooted franchise, but getting to $300 million domestically could be dicey if The Dark Knight Rises is an Avenger’s-like monster hit that sucks all the oxygen out of the room.
The new Spider-Man film also debuted in 70 overseas markets, and could end up doing the majority of its damage overseas. The film has done particularly well in Korea where it has earned $25.2 million (in 10 days) and in Japan where it has brought in $20.7 million in the same period. Its top new foreign debuts were in the U.K. where it earned $18.1 million and Russia where it collected $10.8 million.
| Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): July 6 - 8, 2012 | ||||||
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| Film | Weekend Gross | Screens | Avg./ Screen | Total Gross | Wk# |
| 1 | The Amazing Spider-Man | $65,000,000 | 4,318 | $15,053 | $140,000,000 | 1 |
| 2 | Ted | $32,593,000 | 3,256 | $10,010 | $120,240,000 | 2 |
| 3 | Brave | $20,162,000 | 3,891 | $5,182 | $174,519,000 | 3 |
| 4 | Savages | $16,162,000 | 2,628 | $6,150 | $16,162,000 | 1 |
| 5 | Magic Mike | $15,610,000 | 3,120 | $5,003 | $72,797,000 | 2 |
| 6 | Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection | $10,200,000 | 2,161 | $4,720 | $45,846,000 | 2 |
| 7 | Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted | $7,700,000 | 2,861 | $2,691 | $196,020,000 | 5 |
| 8 | Katy Perry: Part of Me | $7,150,000 | 2,730 | $2,619 | $10,250,000 | 1 |
| 9 | Moonrise Kingdom | $4,642,000 | 884 | $5,251 | $26,893,000 | 7 |
| 10 | To Rome with Love | $3,502,000 | 806 | $4,345 | $5,621,000 | 3 |
Last week's winner, Seth McFarlane’s Ted, was in second place as it dropped just 40.1% and earned $32.6 million. In just 10 days Ted has earned $120 million and confirmed its status (as predicted last week by ICv2) as the "R" rated comedy hit of the summer.
Pixar’s Brave slipped 41% in its third weekend as it took in an estimated $20.1 million and brought its domestic total to $174.5 million. Brave is proving to be softer than previous Pixar releases, but it is already assured of becoming Pixar’s 10th film to earn over $200 million domestically.
With a major TV ad campaign it appeared that Oliver Stone’s Savages might have performed more like the recent bloody action movie Contraband, which debuted with $24.3 million, but Stone’s drug war saga was hurt by poor word-of-mouth as evidenced by it’s nasty "C+" CinemaScore from the opening weekend crowd. The $45 million "R" rated film actually attracted an audience that was 51% female and, as expected based on its rating, older with 61% of the crowd over 30. Foreign markets could give this film its best chance of ending up in the black.
The male stripper film Magic Mike tumbled 60%, but still earned $15.6 million and brought its domestic cumulative to $72.8 million, not bad for the film that Steven Soderbergh shot for just $7 million. Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection also fell nearly 60% and it took it $10.2 million. The $20 million production has already earned nearly $46 million, which means it should be in the black already.
Madagascar 3 remained in the Top Ten for the fifth week in a row as it earned another $7.7 million and brought its domestic total to $196 million. The Dreamworks animated feature should pass the $200 million mark in the coming week, but that could be about all for the film as Ice Age: Continental Drift debuts next weekend.
The Katy Perry: Part of Me concert documentary bowed disappointingly in the 8th spot with $7.1 million. The $12 million production should eventually make its money back, but it is certainly not the kind of box office draw that a Justin Bieber (or the forthcoming One Direction) film would be.
Joss Whedon’s The Avengers finished at #12, but still managed to add $2.2 million to bring its domestic total to $611.1 million after its 10th weekend of release.
Check back next week to see if The Amazing Spider-Man will be able to hold off the challenge of yet another sequel from the popular Ice Age animated feature franchise.
