In spite of opening with comparatively little buzz during a week dominated by the announcement of a long-awaited Justice League movie (see "'Justice League' Movie Announced"), and the hugely-anticipated casting of Star Wars: Episode VII (see "Star Wars: Episode VII' Cast Announced"), Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 scored a solid $92 million debut.  ASM 2 also earned $116 million overseas this weekend bringing its worldwide total to $369 million.  But, in what could become a theme for a summer that appears to be lacking in mega-hits unless Godzilla, X-Men: Days of Future Past or some other film (How to Train Your Dragon 2) really breaks out, the ASM 2 debut and some strong holdover performances were still not enough prevent a 31.5% decline in the total of the top 12 films this weekend when compared with films from the same opening weekend of the summer movie season last May when Iron Man 3 debuted to a massive $174.14 million.
 
Sony is undoubtedly unhappy that ASM 2 couldn’t match Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s $95 million April debut, but there is hope that ASM 2 will end up with a domestic total in the neighborhood of Webb’s original Spider-Man reboot, which earned $262 million in 2012, and there is little doubt that ASM 2 will do better than the first ASM overseas (though in terms of determining profitability it should be remembered that studios receive a smaller percentage of box office receipts from foreign showings--as little as 33% of Chinese ticket sales compared with around 50% of the domestic box office).  It should also be noted that with a production budget well north of $200 million, ASM 2 will have to earn somewhere over half a billion globally just to break even.
 
The relatively kid-friendly The Amazing Spider-Man 2 managed a solid distribution across the various age demographics with 51% of the opening weekend audience under 25, and families making up a solid 33% of the audience.  As might be expected, males predominated in the audience (61%), though 39% female is not a bad percentage for a superhero film.  The under 25 crowd gave the film a solid "A-" CinemaScore, while the older folks brought the film’s overall rating down to a more pedestrian "B+."  In spite of mixed reviews (only 54% positive on Rotten Tomatoes), Amazing Spider-Man 2 with its strong cast and Spidey’s strong kid-friendly appear has a chance to match the first Amazing Spider-Man movie’s domestic total of $262 million, especially if it can post a strong hold next weekend during which it will face no new action movie competition.  In two weeks the competition gets stiffer with the debut of Godzilla followed a week later by X-Men: Days of Future Past, so ASM 2 needs to do particularly well over the next 10-12 days.
 

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 2-4, 2014
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	The Amazing Spider-Man 2	$92,000,000	4,324	$21,277	$92,000,000	1
2	The Other Woman	$14,200,000	3,238	$4,385	$47,345,000	2
3	Heaven is for Real	$8,700,000	2,930	$2,969	$65,600,000	3
4	Captain America: The Winter Soldier	$7,762,000	3,179	$2,442	$237,143,000	5
5	Rio 2	$7,600,000	3,314	$2,293	$106,470,000	4
6	Brick Mansions	$3,545,000	2,647	$1,339	$15,482,000	2
7	Divergent	$2,175,000	1,639	$1,327	$142,662,000	7
8	The Quiet Ones	$2,000,000	2,027	$987	$6,761,000	2
9	God's Not Dead	$1,769,000	1,330	$1,330	$55,564,000	7
10	The Grand Budapest Hotel	$1,735,000	884	$1,963	$51,506,000	9

It is hard to compare ASM 2’s opening with that of its predecessor, which debuted on Tuesday of the Fourth of July week in 2012 and earned $137 million during its first six days.  Of course the debut of Amazing Spider-Man 2, in spite of higher ticket prices, can’t compare with the May openings of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man in 2002 ($114 million) and Spider-Man 3 in 2007 ($151 million), but that’s kind of what you get when you reboot a franchise about an eternally teenaged superhero after just five years.  ASM 2 earned 43% of its total from 3-D showings and 17% of the first weekend gross from large format screens (IMAX and PLF).  Overall this was a solid debut for the second film in the rebooted Spider-Man trilogy, though it has to be a bit galling for the folks at Sony that Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s status as the #1 superhero film of 2014 to date appears to be only slightly in danger of being overtaken by ASM 2.
 
The female revenge comedy The Other Woman, which topped the box office last week, dropped just 42.7% and landed in second place adding $14.2 million and bringing its two-week total to $47.3 million, while the religiously-themed Heaven Is for Real only fell 39.4% as it brought in $8.7 million and ran its total to $65.6 million.
 
Captain America: The Winter Soldier slipped to #4 in its fifth weekend in theaters as it added $7.8 million, bringing its domestic total to $237.1 million.  Winter Soldier has now earned $679.8 million worldwide as it moved past Man of Steel, The Sixth Sense, and Forrest Gump into 66th place on the all-time list (not adjusted for ticket price inflation). 
 
Fox’s Rio 2 also posted a solid hold as it ran its domestic title past the $100 million mark.  So far seven films released in 2014 have managed to pass the $100 mark, with Noah ($99 million) and ASM 2 certain to join the club by next weekend.
 
Divergent added $2.1 million in its seventh weekend, bringing its domestic total to $142.7 million.  It should finish its domestic run around $150 million.  Lionsgate is rolling the film out fairly slowly overseas where the property is not as well known, but the movie has done $107.6 million for a worldwide total of $250 million, making the $85 million production a modest hit.  Will the second Divergent film enjoy a break out success that will put it closer to The Hunger Games or Twilight?  It should be interesting to find out.
 
Check back here next week to see how ASM2 fares in its all-important sophomore session when it will face competition from a trio of new films including the R-rated Seth Rogen comedy Neighbors, the animated Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return, and the PG-comedy Mom’s Night Out starring Patricia Heaton.