Across the Spider-Verse’s box office opening makes it the third biggest Spider-Man movie

Modified Jun 05, 2023 15:15 IST

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse became a critical success, continuing what Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse began. This has been rewarded big time at the box office as stats indicate that the film's opening numbers are way better than the original.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse only opened with $35.4 million domestically and made $190 million in the same market and $384 million worldwide. This was a middling yet promising result as Into the Spider-Verse hit theaters in a highly competitive market, going up against Bumblebee, Aquaman, and Mary Poppins.

But over the years, the movie has gained a lot of fans who have streamed it on online platforms. So, the sequel got a big boost from the new audience amassed by streaming on Netflix. As a result, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made almost four times the money that the original film made at its opening.

Across the Spider-Verse wins the opening box office

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse made $120.5 million in its first three days (June 2-4) and brought in another $88 million from the international markets. So, its total worldwide box office opening reached $208 million. As far as the domestic opening is concerned, it is the third biggest for a Spider-Man movie and the sixth biggest for an animated movie.

This is far more than what was originally speculated, as Variety had reported that Across the Spider-Verse will only bring in about $80 million from the domestic market. Deadline further stated that the global total would reach around $150 million in the first three days.

But $120 million (domestic) and $208 million (worldwide) is a big jump from the original estimates, and that’s because of the hype generated by hard-core comic book fans and the critical acclaim the Spider-Verse sequel got.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse got a franchise-high Rotten Tomatoes score of 97% fresh reviews, and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse continued the success by ending up at a very close with 95% fresh reviews.

It turned out to be a very strong sequel, building up on the first one and leaving things on a major cliffhanger, which will be resolved in Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse.

Why Across the Spider-verse could face a few problems down the line

The hype for Spider-Verse 2 deservingly grew quite big in its first three days. But it will be interesting to see how the movie performs on its second weekend. With the kind of reviews it has got, it should hold strong and only face a drop of around 50-55% from its opening numbers.

Across the Spider-Verse vs. Transformers 7 (Image via Sony/Paramount)

But the problem it will face is that it will lose all of its premium money-making screens to Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, which hits theaters on June 9. The arrival of Transformers 7 will add to the already playing competition from The Little Mermaid, Fast X, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.

Furthermore, June will also bring out movies such as The Flash on June 16, Asteroid City on June 23, and Indiana Jones 5 on June 30. So, the competition will only get bigger.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 had strong legs at the box office because it was well-appreciated by fans and critics alike. But despite its minimal box office drops, it still did not grow big enough to enter the Billion Dollar club.

Similarly, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’s worldwide numbers could diminish despite its top quality because Hollywood simply has too much to offer throughout Summer 2023.

Edited by Shreya Das