Sony’s highly-anticipated sequel Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse brought in an astounding $17.35 million in Thursday previews, Deadline and Variety reported Friday, leaving the sequel just short of breaking The Incredibles 2’s all-time Thursday preview record for an animated movie and blowing Sony’s 2018 original out of the water.
'Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse,' starring Hailee Steinfeld and Shameik Moore, made more than ... [+]
Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse made nearly five times as much in its Thursday previews as its 2018 predecessor, Spider-Man: Into the Spider Verse, which took in $3.5 million in previews and finished the weekend with $35.4 million.
The sequel is projected to make between $80 million and $90 million by the end of the weekend, Variety reported, putting it only behind 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260.1 million), 2007’s Spider-Man 3—the last of a re-launched trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst ($151.1 million)—2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming ($117 million), 2002’s Spider-Man ($114.8 million), 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home ($92.6 million), starring Tom Holland, and 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2 ($91.7 million), starring Andrew Garfield.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider Verse, starring Shameik Moore, Issa Rae, Hailee Steinfeld, Daniel Kaluuya, Jake Johnson and Oscar Isaac, falls narrowly behind Disney’s The Incredibles 2 (2018) for the biggest Thursday preview for an animated movie (The Incredibles 2 made $18.5 million in previews).
98%. That’s the movie’s audience rating from more than 1,000 viewers on Rotten Tomatoes, with critics on the site giving it a score of 96%, amid mostly stellar reviews, with one review in Vox calling it a “gorgeous, daring triumph” and a New York Times review lauding it for “[expanding] the multiverse concept without shamelessly capitalizing on fan service.” Critics on Metacritic have also given the sequel favorable reviews, rating it at 86/100, just below its predecessor (87/100).
The release comes just one week after Disney’s The Little Mermaid raked in $117.5 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office, after initial projections pegged it to win roughly $100 million, making the live-action reboot of the 1989 animated classic one of the biggest releases of the year, though it still trails blockbusters Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ($118 million) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($204.6 million) in opening weekend earnings.
‘Little Mermaid’ Reboot Headed Toward $100 Million Opening Weekend—One Of 2023’s Biggest Releases (Forbes)