"Amazing Spider-Man" continued to weave a powerful box-office web, bringing in $20.7 million Friday. That puts it on track for a weekend between $60 million and $65 million and could add up to a six-day July 4 haul of $140 million.
Sony has to be pleased. The numbers compare favorably with two other recent franchise reboots. "Batman Begins" opened to $48.7 million in its first three days in 2005, and last year's "X-Men: First Class" bowed to $55.1 million. The fresh take on the franchise clicked with audiences, who gave "Amazing Spider-Man" an "A-" CinemaScore.
Spidey is leading a big weekend at the overall box office, which is running 35 percent over last year's post-July 4 frame.
"Ted," Seth MacFarlane's R-rated foul-mouthed teddy bear tale starring Mark Wahlberg, gave Universal the No. 2 spot with $10.5 million Friday. That puts last week's No. 1 film on track for an impressive $33 million second weekend.
"Savages," Oliver Stone's drug trade thriller and one of the weekend's other two wide openers, made $5.6 million Friday and looks likely to take in $16.8 million over the three days for Universal. That's at the high end of expectations, though audiences gave it a "C+" CinemaScore.
"Katy Perry: Part of Me," a PG-rated concert documentary from Paramount, brought in $3 million Friday and is looking at between $8 million and $9 million in its first weekend.
Disney and Pixar's "Brave" managed $7.2 million Friday, which projects to a $24 million weekend and third place.
"Magic Mike" was fourth with $6.1 million Friday and is looking at an $18.5 million second weekend for Warner Bros.
"Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection" is looking at roughly $12 million for its second weekend after a $3.6 million Friday for Lionsgate.
In the specialty market, Fox Searchlight's "Beasts of the Southern Wild" continued to impress in its second week, taking in $108,774 from 19 theaters, a $5,725 per-screen average.
Earlier ….
"The Amazing Spider-Man" has cast quite a web over the North American box office, and there's not much room left for poor Katy Perry and Oliver Stone to break through.
The pop singer and the provocateur are facing the unenviable task of trying to attract moviegoers to their latest offerings in a crowded field.
After swinging into theaters to the tune of $35 million on Tuesday, Sony is projecting that its Spider-Man reboot will command $130 million over its first six days of release. That's a good start for a movie that cost $230 million to produce and, like "Batman Begins," had to ensnare audiences with a fresh approach to a familiar franchise.
In a summer season that has suffered from something of a tentpole bottleneck, "Spider-Man"s' success is bad news for Stone's "Savages" and the music documentary "Katy Perry: Part of Me."
"Savages," a $45 million drama about a pair of pot dealers who get on the wrong side of a Mexican drug cartel, opens in 2,627 theaters on Friday. It stars John Travolta, Salma Hayek, Aaron Johnson, Blake Lively and Taylor Kitsch, the hunky actor still reeling from the twin disappointments of "John Carter" and "Battleship."
Also read: 'Savages' Review: A Flashy but Flimsy Drug-War Story From Oliver Stone
"Savages" has received decent reviews and a 63 percent "fresh" rating on critics aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, but the violent, hallucinatory thriller will have trouble dragging enough males away from "Spider-Man." It stands to make $10 million over the weekend, according to pre-release tracking.
"It will do respectable, but not earth-shattering business," Phil Contrino, editor of Boxoffice.com, told TheWrap. "Universal is definitely being aggressive with its marketing, but there's too much overlap with the audience for 'Spider-Man' and 'Ted.'"
As for the former Mrs. Russell Brand, "Katy Perry: Part of Me" is unlikely to match the success of "Justin Bieber: Never Say Never," a similar tween-skewing film that opened to nearly $30 million in 2011.
Paramount will unveil the PG-rated music documentary on about 2,700 screens Thursday.
Expectations for the film are in the $13 million range for the four-day weekend.
On the bright side, the Paramount Insurge production did not represent a huge risk for the studio, costing a mere $12 million to produce. In addition to its domestic debut, "Katy Perry: Part of Me" is also bowing in the U.K., Australia and New Zealand this weekend.