'Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse' becomes best animated launch for Sony

‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ exceeded box office expectations with a $120.5 million opening in the U.S. Yahoo Finance’s Alexandra Canal covers the film’s performance over this weekend.

Video transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Looking at "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse," it smashed the box office this weekend, with a massive $120.5 million opening in the US. That's according to studio estimates. The film earned nearly three times as much as the prequel, "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" did in its opening weekend in 2018.

Yahoo Finance's Ali Canal, joins us now to break down the box office latest. Hey, Ali.

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Hi, Rachelle. And yes, those numbers are incredibly impressive. Considering the estimate was an 80 million debut, "Spider-Man" just seems to be that one fan-favorite character that can get people back to theaters.

You mentioned that killer domestic opening but overseas, the film outperformed as well, adding an additional 88 million to a global haul that's close to 210. Not bad for a film that cost just 100 million to make. In terms of those top international markets, you're seeing them on your screen now, China is number one, followed by Mexico and the UK.

And that China performance is significant to me, considering Disney's "The Little Mermaid" really struggled overseas in its Memorial Day weekend debut, particularly in China. Many pegged that to widespread racism in the country, over the casting of Halle Bailey, who is a Black actress, as Ariel.

But in this animated adaption of "Spider-Man," Peter Parker is a teen of African-American and Puerto Rican descent. Now some have said that that fresh take on an old traditional story is one that really intrigued audiences to come to the box office. It's also worth noting that, yes, this is a sequel. The original did go on to win an Oscar, so there was a lot of momentum heading into this debut. And people have seemed to have wanted to see this film on premium screens as well, with IMAX accounting for just over 11% of the film's opening weekend tally.

So by and large, really strong performance here. And if you're a fan of the "Spider-Man" franchise, odds are you went out this weekend to see it.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: I didn't get a chance to see it this weekend, but it is on my list. It is what I am prioritizing this week. I'm making sure I see that. Now, obviously, a lot of kid-friendly content out there at the moment, it really dominating the box office after struggling to gain audiences, initially, post-pandemic. So what do you credit this boost to?

ALEXANDRA CANAL: Well, I think this weekend is a perfect example of that. Considering "Spider-Man" is now the second largest opening weekend of 2023, and it comes behind another family-friendly and animated film, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." And to me, that's huge, considering we saw some really strong titles debut this year, like "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3." And here we have two animated films taking the top spot.

I think a large part of this that's driving the role of these films at the box office is pent up demand. A lot of these parents were nervous to take their children to the theaters, especially over the course of the pandemic and all the variants that we saw. And I also think that we're just seeing new content, different types of content. It's not the typical A-list stars, superhero movie that we've been used to. And that's going to be key on filling out the box office through the end of the year and well into 2024.

I think it's also worth noting that we're seeing different studios debut these types of movies. Typically, Disney has been the pioneer in that family-friendly animated content, but they've struggled recently. And now we're seeing studios like Sony and Universal provide some of that competition. And sometimes competition can be a good thing, especially for the consumer, when we want to see more films in theaters.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: It does feel like we're spoiled for choice. And of course, schools are about to be let out so I'm sure all of these will get another bump from that as well. Thank you for taking care of all of that. Ali Canal there for us.