"The Amazing Spider-Man 2" Debuts at #1

[JamesG]

Weekend Report: Franchise Fatigue Weighs Down Amazing Spider-Man 2
by Ray Subers
May 4, 2014



The Amazing Spider-Man 2 scored one of the best debuts of the year, but wasn't nearly as amazing as past outings in the Spider-Man franchise.

Of course, the movie is doing significantly stronger business overseas. So far, it's earned $277 million, and has a good chance of matching its predecessor's $490 million total.







At the domestic box office, the sequel to the 2012 reboot opened to an estimated $92 million. That's a bit lower than Captain America: The Winter Soldier's $95 million debut last month. It is higher than Thor: The Dark World ($85.7 million), and is also above 2009 summer kick-off X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($85.1 million).

Compared to other outings in the Spider-Man series, though, this is a disappointing debut. It's tough to compare this to the first Amazing Spider-Man, which opened on a Tuesday ahead of the Fourth of July weekend.

The best comparable titles are the first and third movie in Sam Raimi's original trilogy, which also debuted on the first weekend of May. Those opened to $114.8 million and $151.1 million, respectively, with much lower average ticket prices and no 3D premiums.



The Spider-Man character clearly remains very popular—if that weren't the case, it couldn't have possibly reached $90 million. It's abundantly clear, though, that this franchise has to some extent worn out its welcome with moviegoers.

To justify its existence so soon after the Raimi series, the 2012 reboot needed to be great; unfortunately, reactions were generally mixed. It was also the lowest-grossing entry yet at the domestic box office with $262 million (down 22 percent from the last entry).

To stop the bleeding, the second outing threw a ton of villains at Spider-Man, though that approach had its pros and cons (Electro looked silly, while Green Goblin felt redundant). Marketing wasn't quite able to overcome the "been there, done that" feeling that's accompanied this reboot series.



There was also an expectation that The Amazing Spider-Man 2 would be propped up by its Summer kick-off release date. Unfortunately, Captain America: The Winter Soldier seems to have stolen some of its thunder there. Reviews didn't help either, as it wound up being the worst-reviewed Spider-Man movie yet.

According to Sony, the audience was 61 percent male and 51 percent under the age of 25. That's younger than the typical audience for a superhero movie, and family attendance (33 percent) likely had something to do with this.



The long-term prospects at the domestic box office aren't great. The movie received a so-so "B+" CinemaScore, which suggests word-of-mouth will be only a bit better than the reviews.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will likely fall off quickly in the coming weeks, and is essentially guaranteed to be the lowest-grossing entry yet in the franchise. Based on the pattern of other May openers, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 should finish with around $230 million.







In a distant second place, The Other Woman eased 43 percent to an estimated $14.2 million.

Through 10 days, the comedy hit has earned $47.3 million.







Heaven is for Real held on to third place with an estimated $8.7 million (down 39 percent).

The faith-based drama passed Son of God on Saturday, and has now earned $65.6 million total.







Animated sequel Rio 2 rounded out the Top Five with $7.6 million.

To date, the movie has taken in $106.5 million—that's around $9 million below the first Rio through the same point.







In limited release, Fox Searchlight's Belle earned a solid $105,000 from four theaters.

Searchlight is planning to expand the movie over the next few weeks, with the hope that it will be in around 300 theaters by Memorial Day.







Originally slated for a wide release through FilmDistrict, Elizabeth Banks comedy Walk of Shame got the day-and-date VOD treatment from Focus Features this weekend. Playing at 51 locations, the movie earned just $38,000.

It reportedly shot up to first place on iTunes, though specific VOD information is not available.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=3837&p=.htm









May 2-4, 2014 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 $92,000,000
2. The Other Woman $14,200,000 / $47,345,000
3. Heaven is for Real $8,700,000 / $65,600,000
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier $7,762,000 / $237,143,000
5. Rio 2 $7,600,000 / $106,470,000
6. Brick Mansions $3,545,000 / $15,482,000
7. Divergent $2,175,000 / $142,662,000
8. The Quiet Ones $2,000,000 / $6,761,000
9. God's Not Dead $1,769,000 / $55,564,000
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel $1,735,000 / $51,506,000

[Vahan]

My prediction is that within the next few weeks, the newest Godzilla movie will either get as high as no. 2, or knock The Amazing Spider-Man 2 off the top, and the latest X-Men movie will bomb tremendously, due to people not seeing it in protest, out of respect for Bryan Singer's alleged rape victims.

[JamesG]

Originally Posted by Vahan

My prediction is that within the next few weeks, the newest Godzilla movie will either get as high as no. 2, or knock The Amazing Spider-Man 2 off the top, and the latest X-Men movie will bomb tremendously, due to people not seeing it in protest, out of respect for Bryan Singer's alleged rape victims.

I really don't think the Bryan Singer situation will have any affect on X-Men: Days of Future Past's box office performance.

There will be some people who won't go see it, but I do not see it bombing.

[irehtman]

We hope there will be The Amazing Spiderman 3 in the future.

[Tubehead]

their making the amazing spider-man 3 in 2016 then they may make Sinister Six or venom movie before the amazing spider-man 3 comes out their also making the amazing spider-man 4 in 2018 but Andrew Garfield said he may not come back as peter parker/ spider-man.

[MacLeaper]

Though I didn't really get that much into "The Amazing Spider-Man" to begin with (mainly because I had issues with how the origin story was changed, among other things)- I actually liked the sequel a lot better, though it was pretty violent- but not nearly as violent as other superhero movies I've seen, so I think it was fairly well in check. It did have some foul language too and so it was unfortunate for both those things. But otherwise, I liked that Spider-Man definitely feels like Spidey- and Rhino's appearance was decent enough. Neat to see the Green Goblin back- I didn't know that was coming. I still don't know that the Electro casting was the best- but it worked okay.
I'll be interested to see the Sinister Six make an appearance in the next movie. I still like the Tobey Maguire movies best for Spider-Man, but these aren't too bad in general.