They want pictures of Spider-Man. Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation’s “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” earned $51.75 million on Friday from 4,313 locations, a figure that includes some $17.35 million in Thursday previews.
The animated superhero adventure is already outpacing projections headed its projections of an $80 million-or-so opening heading into the weekend, with the film now looking to thwip together a $113 million debut through Sunday.
The original 2018 “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” performed closer to a traditional animated release, opening to $35 million domestically before legging out to a $190 million haul through the holiday season. This new sequel is performing closer to a summer blockbuster, now looking to more than triple the debut of its predecessor. The $51.75 million figure marks the third-highest opening day of all-time for an animated release.
“Across the Spider-Verse” features returning cast members Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker as the trio of arachnoid vigilantes journey between dimensions once again. New characters include Miguel O’Hara (Oscar Isaac), Jessica Drew (Issa Rae), Spider-Man India (Karan Soni) and Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya).
Reviews for the sequel have been overwhelmingly positive, with the film currently rating 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. In Variety‘s review, chief film critic Owen Gleiberman wrote: “They’ve done it. ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’ doesn’t just extend the tale of Miles Morales. The film advances that story into newly jacked-up realms of wow-ness that make it a genuine spiritual companion piece to the first film. That one spun our heads and then some; this one spins our heads even more (and would fans, including me, have it any other way?).”
More to come…
