‘Spider-Man’ shoots to No. 1, to Sony’s delight
‘Despicable Me 3’ drops to second; ‘Baby Driver’ third
Spider-Man: HomeNEW YORK
coming swung past expectations, opening with an estimated $117 million at the weekend box office and giving Sony Pictures a muchneeded hit.
The third Spider-Man iteration in the last 15 years, Homecoming was one of the biggest tests yet for the notion that U.S. moviegoers are growing weary of sequels and reboots, and suffering so-called “franchise fatigue.”
For Homecoming, filmmakers returned to Spider-Man’s (Tom Holland) teenage roots, with many critics deeming director Jon Watts’ version one of the best
Spider-Man films. Sony partnered with Marvel Studios to rope Homecoming into Marvel’s wider cinematic universe. Robert Downey Jr.’s Tony Stark/Iron Man appears as Spider-Man’s mentor, and Michael Keaton plays the villain Vulture.
Those ingredients, along with a marketing effort that appealed to young moviegoers, pushed Home
coming to the best Spider-Man debut since 2007’s Spider-Man 3. The film, made for about $175 million, grossed $140 million internationally for the weekend.
“Even though there have been other Spider-Man movies, this film feels fresh and new and different and special, and I think that’s what’s really resonating with audiences,” says Josh Greenstein, Sony Pictures’ president of worldwide marketing and distribution.
Sony has struggled in the years since the infamous cyber hack of 2014. Box-office disappointments like Ang Lee’s high-frame-rate gambit Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime
Walk and the all-female cultural flashpoint Ghostbusters have dotted its lineup. Sony’s smartest move on Spi
der-Man: Homecoming might have been bringing it into the Marvel fold. “Spider-Man is one of the crown jewels of the superhero world. No way was Sony ever going to give up on SpiderMan. So what do they do? They collaborate more closely with Marvel, and it paid off handsomely this weekend,” says Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. Last week’s top film, Despicable
Me 3, dropped to second with $34 million. Edgar Wright’s quirky action-musical Baby Driver held well in third with $12.8 million in its second week. The movie, which cost $34 million to produce, has already earned $56.9 million domestically. Rounding out the top five were Wonder
Woman, which finished fourth with $10.1 million, and Transformers: The Last Knight, which slid to fifth with $6.3 million. Final figures are expected Monday.