“Spider-Man: Far From Home” made an estimated $185 million at the North American box office over its six day holiday opening.
That blew away industry expectations. The film was initially projected to make $125 million from Tuesday through Sunday, according to Sony, which co-produced the superhero film with Marvel Studios.
The film has made $580 million globally in its first 10 days of release. Spidey’s big opening was great news for Hollywood because the summer movie season was in desperate need of a win.
June was a particularly rough month at the domestic box officewith multiple sequels, including “Men In Black: International,” “Dark Phoenix” and “Toy Story 4” underperforming in recent weeks.
“Spider-Man gave this summer the jolt it needed,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice.com, told CNN Business. “‘Far From Home’s’ ability to win over audiences is further proof that audiences are just looking for good movies, sequels or otherwise.”
“Far From Home,” which cost $160 million to make, had strong critical reviews. It holds a 92% score on review site Rotten Tomatoes.
The film likely had a sizable box office bump thanks to it being the follow up to “Avengers: Endgame,” which shattered box office records in April.
The big opening for “Far From Home” solidifies two important things going forward for the superhero genre and Marvel, Robbins said.
“Moviegoers aren’t burnt out on Spider-Man or superhero movies, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe clearly has promising life beyond the end of their first era in ‘Endgame,'” he said.
The big windfall for “Far From Home” could help turn things around at the box office for the rest of the summer, and maybe even the rest of the year, according to Robbins.
“There’s plenty of reason to remainbullish on summer’s second half with ‘The Lion King,’ ‘Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,’ and ‘Hobbs & Shaw’ around the corner,” he added. “A record year may not seem likely at this point in time, but we also shouldn’t write off the possibility of a major turnaround with these heavyweight titles and other possible sleepers still on deck.”
