“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened in U.S. and Canadian theaters with a massive $120.5 million, more than tripling the debut of the 2018 animated original.
By Jake Coyle | Associated Press
“Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” opened in U.S. and Canadian theaters with a massive $120.5 million, more than tripling the debut of the 2018 animated original and showing the kind of movie-to-movie box-office growth that would be the envy of even the mightiest of Hollywood franchises.
Sony Pictures’ “Across the Spider-Verse,” the multi-verse spinning animated Spider-Man spinoff, sailed way past expectations, according to studio estimates Sunday, riding terrific reviews (95% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong buzz for the hotly anticipated follow-up to the Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
In the sometimes formulaic realm of superhero movies, 2018’s “Into the Spider-Verse” offered a blast of originality, introducing a teenage webslinger from Brooklyn, Miles Morales ( Shameik Moore ), a punk-rock Gwen (Hailee Steinfeld) and a host of other Spider-People. It launched with $35.4 million on its way to $384.3 million worldwide.
“Across the Spider-Verse,” which exponentially expands the film’s universe-skipping worlds, cost $100 million to make, about half the cost of the average live-action comic-book movie. So at even the forecast $80 million that “Spider-Verse” had been expected to open, “Across the Spider-Verse” would have been a hit.
