'Spider-Verse' Handily Wins the Weekend
by EG
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung past the competition to win the weekend at the box office. Since there's no new Star Wars movie this year, December is shaping up to be relatively sleepy in theaters. Read on for details.
In another win for Sony's stable of Marvel films, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung to $35.4 million in its domestic debut — the best December opening ever for an animated film — laying the course for a strong run over the year-end holidays.
The critically acclaimed film, produced by Philip Lord and Christopher Miller, reveals a shared universe where there can be more than one Spider-Man and introduces Brooklyn teen Miles Morales (Shameik Moore) as the latest hero to wear the mask.
Without a Star Wars movie in the holiday corridor for the first time since 2014, overall revenue for the frame plummeted by 60 percent compared to the same weekend last year, when Star Wars: The Last Jedi launched to $220 million domestically. The dip was expected, and 2018 revenue is still running ahead of last year by nearly 9 percent.
Traditionally, most movies don't score big mid-December openings; rather, they can enjoy especially strong multiples over the Christmas stretch. Spider-Verse, fueled by fanboys and families, scored a coveted A+ CinemaScore — a first for a Spider-Man pic.
"We're positioned nicely to play during the biggest moviegoing week of the year, which begins Dec. 25," says Sony's distribution chief Adrian Smith.
Unique for featuring a superhero who is half Puerto Rican and half African-American, Spider-Verse succeeded in playing to a perse audience. Caucasians made up 47 percent of ticket buyers, followed by Hispanics (20 percent), African-Americans (17 percent) and Asians/Other (16 percent), according to ComScore.
Spider-Verse, which is vying for awards recognition, also pushes the boundaries in featuring CGI and hand-drawn animation. Costing at least $90 million to make, it follows the success of Sony's Venom and was directed by Bob Persichetti, Peter Ramsey and Rodney Rothman.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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