“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” was weaving a dominating web at the box office Saturday, after taking in $35.5 million in its first day of release Friday.
That puts Sony’s Marvel superhero sequel on pace to bring in around $92 million for the weekend, the first in Hollywood’s blockbuster summer season. And it gives “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” a good shot at catching Disney’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier” for the year’s biggest opening. That Marvel superhero sequel brought in $95 million in April, after a $37 million first day.
Whether it does or not will depend on the family turnout on Saturday and Sunday for the PG-13 comic book adventure, which drew a “B+” from first-night moviegoers, but an “A-” from those under 25 years of age. The Friday total for the Spidey sequel is almost the same as the first day that “The Amazing Spider-Man” managed on Tuesday, July 3, in 2012, before going on to take in $114 million over the six-day holiday.
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The impressive Friday haul for “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” came from 3,424 locations, 354 of which were IMAX theaters. It included $8.7 million from Thursday night shows at roughly 3,000 theaters.
“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” stars Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, and features Jamie Foxx, Paul Giamatti and Dane DeHaan. Marc Webb returns to direct, from a script by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman, Jeff Pinkner and James Vanderbilt. Marvel Studios founder Avi Arad produces, along with Matt Tolmach. E. Bennett Walsh, Stan Lee, Kurtzman and Orci are executive producers.
Sony has invested heavily in Spidey as a franchise, and has set sequels for 2016 and 2018 and is developing two spin-offs based on characters from Peter Parker’s universe. A key to that strategy is overseas, and “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” has already taken in more than $155 million from abroad, ahead of openings in China and Brazil this weekend.
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The two runner-up films weren’t close to the leader but both held strongly, falling just 40 percent from solid showings last weekend.
Last week’s No. 1 movie, “The Other Woman,” is looking at a $15 million second weekend after taking in $4.8 million Friday. That would give the PG-13-rated Fox comedy starring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton roughly $47 million total after two weeks.
Sony’s faith-based drama “Heaven Is for Real” was third Friday with $2.4 million, which translates to an $8.5 million third week. That puts the tale of a pastor (Greg Kinnear) who backs his son after the boy claims to have seen Heaven following a near-death experience at $65 million after three weeks — pretty good for a movie with $12 million budget.
“Captain America: The Winter Soldier” ($2 million) and the animated musical “Rio 2” ($1.7 million) followed on Friday, and both should come in at about $7.5 million for the three days.
Disney’s superhero saga is up to $231 million domestically and $650 million worldwide after five weeks, while Fox’s G-rated family film crossed the $100 million mark domestically and has made more than $350 million globally after four weeks.
Paul Walker’s “Brick Mansions,” the teen sci-fi tale “Divergent,” the Lionsgate horror film “The Quiet Ones,” Wes Anderson’s comedy “The Grand Budapest Hotel” and the faith-based indie drama “God’s Not Dead” rounded out the top ten Friday.
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Johnny Depp’s sci-fi tale “Transcendence” fell off the leader board in its third week and may not hit $25 million domestically. It’s at $20.5 million after taking in $335,000 Friday.
On the specialty front, Fox Searchlight’s British historical drama “Belle” got off to a promising start with $30,728 from four theaters, a $7,682 per-screen average.
Focus Features’ comedy “Walk of Shame,” starring Elizabeth Banks, struggled on its first day with $14,000 from 51 theaters, a very soft $236 per screen average.