Spider-Man: No Way Home continues box office domination

Los Angeles

ANOTHER weekend, another chance for Sony's superhero adventure Spider-Man: No Way Home to flex its muscles at the box office.

The comic book sequel, starring Tom Holland as Marvel's favourite neighbourhood web-slinger, towered over the North American box office charts for the third weekend in a row.

The movie collected US$52.7 million over the New Year's holiday frame, boosting its tally in the United States and Canada to US$609 million.

It extended an epic streak for the latest Spidey adventure, which continues to deliver the kind of ticket sales it would have been expected to make in pre-pandemic times.

The blockbuster has already collected over US$1 billion worldwide, and no other movie has been able to come close to reaching similar box office heights.

After Spider-Man: No Way Home, the next highest-grossing tentpole of Covid-19 times is Disney and Marvel's Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings with US$224 million in North America.

Without any real competition until Paramount's scary sequel Scream, the fifth installment in the slasher series, opens on Jan 14, Holland's teen vigilante will keep raking in the dough.

For non-superhero enthusiasts, or perhaps those who have already seen Spider-Man: No Way Home in cinemas more than once, Universal and Illumination's animated musical comedy Sing 2 enjoyed another relatively strong weekend.

The film, which features an all-star voice cast of Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson and more, earned US$19.6 million from 3,892 cinemas between last Friday (Dec 31) and Sunday, down a scant 12 per cent from its debut.

Since landing on the big screen in advance of Christmas, the well-reviewed Sing 2 has generated an impressive US$89.6 million.

To illustrate the headwinds still facing movies that aren't of the superhero variety, the original 2016 film Sing sold far more tickets, ultimately grossing US$270 million in North America and US$634 million worldwide.

Disney and 20th Century's The King's Man, a prequel in the extended Kingsmen cinematic universe, landed in third place with US$4.5 million from 3,180 screens.

That's down only 24 per cent from inaugural weekend ticket sales, however, its box office receipts weren't that strong to begin with. So far, the spy comedy has picked up US$19.5 million at the domestic box office.

Internationally, The King's Man added another US$14.1 million from 22 overseas markets, boosting its global total to just US$47.8 million.

At No 4, Lionsgate's crowd-pleasing sports drama American Underdog earned US$3.9 million from 2,813 venues, pushing its North American tally to US$14.9 million.

The inspirational film about Kurt Warner's unlikely rise to become a two-time National Football League champion has been embraced by audiences, with an A+ rating on CinemaScore.

Unfortunately, high marks from moviegoers is not quite translating into the kind of word-of-mouth needed to sell tickets.

The Matrix Resurrections fell to fifth place, scraping together US$3.5 million from 3,552 locations over the weekend while playing on HBO Max.

That's a 67 per cent decline from its opening, by far the biggest dip in the top 15 on domestic box office charts.

The fourth Matrix movie, once again starring Keanu Reeves as the sleek cybercriminal Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity, is the last Warner Bros movie for now to premiere on HBO Max on the same day as its theatrical debut.

The studio's strategy to put its entire 2021 slate concurrently on streaming may have boosted awareness around HBO Max, which had a lackluster launch in 2020, but it massively curbed ticket sales for every movie that was released on the big screen.

Other notable releases in the top 10 include Disney's West Side Story, which pocketed US$2.1 million from 2,690 venues.

In total, director Steven Spielberg's remake of the classic musical has made only US$29.6 million in North America and US$47 million worldwide, a disastrous result considering the acclaimed movie cost a whopping US$100 million to produce. REUTERS