‘Across the Spider-Verse’ spins box office with US$120.5 million debut
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MOVIE-GOERS swung their way into theatres for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, giving the animated film a hefty US$120.5 million in its North American box office debut, the second-biggest opening weekend of the year.
Behind only The Super Mario Bros film that garnered US$146 million, the movie’s box office performance surpassed Sony Pictures Animation’s and BoxOffice Pro’s respective estimates of US$75 million to US$115.5 million over its first three days of release in the US and Canada.
The original Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse raked in over US$35 million during its first three days of release in December 2018 and won the Oscar for best animated feature film. The sequel, Across the Spider-Verse, which premiered in theatres on Jun 2, brought in three times the revenue in its opening weekend.
Producer Amy Pascal announced during the film’s Los Angeles premiere that there are more Spider-Verse projects on the way.
“You’ll see all of it,” she told Variety when asked if there were live-action Miles Morales and Spider-Woman movies in the making. “It’s all happening.”
The movie brought in US$208.6 million worldwide, according to Comscore, and sparked speculation about its Oscar prospects, with the film receiving a 95 per cent score from critics and a 96 per cent score from audiences on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
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Spider-Man beat the “rotten” rating from film critics of 59 per cent for Universal Pictures’ Super Mario Bros, and ties with the audience score with 95 per cent for the video game flick.
Dropping to second place was Disney’s live-action version of The Little Mermaid, which raked in a similar amount in its debut the previous weekend and followed up with US$40.6 million.
The remake of the 1989 animated tale of an underwater princess who gives up her voice in pursuit of true love on land stars pop singer Halle Bailey, Jonah Hauer-King as Prince Eric, and Melissa McCarthy as the villainous Ursula.
The Boogeyman debuted in third with US$12.3 million. The 20th Century Studios horror/mystery feature is the latest in a long line of films adapted from Stephen King books, and one of its producers shepherded the hit show Stranger Things onto the small screen.
Slipping one spot to fourth was Disney’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, which added US$10 million to its cumulative worldwide total of about US$780 million.
Universal’s action film Fast X, part of the Fast & Furious franchise, held fifth spot, earning US$9.2 million. REUTERS, AFP
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