Sony's "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" swung into theaters this past weekend, capturing an estimated $120.5 million at the domestic box office. The animated film, which is the sequel to the Academy Award-winning "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse," had the second-biggest opening of 2023, falling just behind Universal's "Super Mario Bros. Movie." The film also marks the third-best opening weekend for any Spider-Man film, animated or live-action. Industry experts note that the PG rating of the film allows it to capture a younger audience, ensuring long-term cross-generational appeal.
According to data from EntTelligence, the film attracted over 9 million moviegoers during its opening weekend. 29% of patrons saw the film in a premium format, paying an average of $4.52 more per ticket. Additionally, tickets for the film represented around 56% of all foot traffic to theaters from Thursday through Sunday.
Sony's animated Spider-Man sequel arrived on the heels of several strong box office openings, including Disney and Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" and Disney's "The Little Mermaid." "Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 3" generated around $322.7 million domestically during its fifth weekend in theaters, while "The Little Mermaid" added $40.6 million to its cumulative global take.
The year-to-date domestic box office tally stands at around $3.6 billion, which is just 21.9% behind prepandemic levels, according to data from Comscore. The 2023 box office so far this year is 27.9% above the same period in 2022. With Spidey's big start, "Little Mermaid's" strong hold, "Boogeyman's" horror offering, the holdover prowess of "Guardians" and "Fast X," and plenty more to come, theater owners, studios, and audiences are now heading full throttle into the most exciting summer market in four years.