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 As of Sunday morning, the latest cinematic
depiction of the webbed-hero, "Spider-Man: Homecoming," is
looking at a $117 million opening from 4,348 locations. $10.6
million of the domestic total came from 392 Imax screens. That's
a huge win for Sony, Columbia Pictures, and Marvel Studios for
the film, which cost roughly $175 million to produce. The
anticipated opening weekend is higher than industry estimates,
which were in the $90 million to $110 million range, while the
studio cautiously pegged it at $80 million.
"Everyone at Sony and Marvel are thrilled," said Josh
Greenstein, Sony's marketing chief. "It's safe to say it's a
triumphant return for Spider-Man."
"Homecoming" banked on the idea that the summer box office was
craving a family-friendly superhero movie -- Tom Holland plays a
high school version of Peter Parker who, at 15 years old, has to
prove that he is worthy of being called an Avenger. And it seems
that bet is paying off. The $117 million figure is the second
largest in Sony Pictures history, behind "Spider-Man 3."
Much attention has been paid to the flick's successful marketing
campaign, which heavily featured Iron Man (Robert Downy Jr.),
who serves as Spider-Man's mentor in the film. Michael Keaton
plays the big bad, Vulture, Jon Favreau plays Spidey's guardian,
Happy Hogan, and Zendaya stars as Michelle Jones ("MJ"),
Parker's brainy classmate. The movie consistently dominated
social media in the weeks leading up to its release.
Before "Homecoming," Jon Watts directed two much lower-budget
feature films -- the 2014 horror movie "Clown" and 2015's "Cop
Car" starring Kevin Bacon. He also has a handful of writing and
producing credits, and is one of six writers credited on the
"Homecoming" script. Kevin Feige and Amy Pascal share production
credit. While the former has proven essentially infallible in
the biz, "Homecoming" serves as a redemption narrative for the
latter. After the infamous 2014 Sony hack, Pascal was ousted
from her post at the top of the studio, and began to focus on
producing. This is her second major release following last
summer's "Ghostbusters" reboot, but she also has a hand in a
long list of upcoming projects including Sony's "Barbie" movie,
Steven Spielberg's A-list-studded "The Papers," and future
"Spider-Man" movies.
"We have incredible partners," said Greenstein, who said that
those relationships helped the film to be "embraced in a big
way. It really shows the strength for this beloved character."
Despite the reliability of superhero movies at the box office,
"Homecoming" could have been seen as a big bet for all parties
involved. For one, it's the third iteration of the character in
the past 15 years -- before Holland, Andrew Garfield and Tobey
Maguire donned the Spidey suit. The makers had to trust that
audiences would be ready to see the character yet again. On top
of that, the summer box office has not been particularly kind to
the sequels and reboots that have become the industry's summer
signature. As audience fatigue has impacted previously reliable
franchises like "Transformers" and even "Despicable Me," the one
thing that this summer has proved is that the domestic audience
is not yet burnt out on superheroes.
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This is yet another Marvel movie release that has managed to capture
the approval of critics and audience members -- something the DC
Extended Universe could not claim until this summer with "Wonder
Woman." But Marvel's been there since the beginning. "Homecoming"
currently has a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A CinemaScore.
"Homecoming" is the only major release this weekend, so the rest of
the top five are made up to familiar faces. Starting with
"Despicable Me 3," which is headed for a $34 million second frame,
or a 53% drop from last weekend. "Baby Driver" should sit
comfortable in third, as positive word of a mouth is steering to a
$12.8 million second weekend, or a 38% drop. "Wonder Woman"
continues to hold on with $10.1 million in its sixth weekend, and
"Transformers: The Last Knight" should round out the top five with
$6.3 million.
Kumail Nanjiani's "The Big Sick" is entering the top ten as it
expands toward wide release, starting next Friday. From 326 North
American theaters this weekend the movie should make $3.7 million.
Sofia Coppola's "The Beguiled" should stay in the top ten as it,
too, expands. This weekend it's expected to make $2.1 million from
941 locations. Meanwhile, A24's "A Ghost Story" starring Rooney Mara
and Casey Affleck should spook $105,000 from four locations during
its opening frame.
Overall, the summer box office stands at about $2.3 billion, or 8%
lower than last year. That leaves the year overall about dead even
with 2016 after movies like "Beauty and the Beast," "Logan," "Get
Out" and "The Fate of the Furious" laid a strong foundation for the
summer during the early part of the calendar year.
"Despite the strength of 'Spider-Man: Homecoming,' yet another
'down' weekend puts us dead even with last year's box office pace as
we remain down 8% for the summer," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior
media analyst at ComScore. "The silver lining is the expected
continued strength of Spidey, plus 'War For The Planet of The Apes,'
'Dunkirk,' and 'Atomic Blonde' all in rapid succession that could
fuel a much-needed late summer renaissance at the multiplex."
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