Earning $92 million, the red and blue web-slinger managed to start the Summer blockbuster season off on the right foot.
In a surprise to absolutely no one, the highly-advertised Amazing Spider-Man 2 snagged the number one spot in the box office top ten with a powerful $92 million. It's a strong opening for the film, and for this Summer's blockbuster season in general.
The wall-climbing web-slinger connected with audiences and roped in big bucks in the states, and saw even larger earning overseas where the film nabbed itself an additional $277 million, for a $369 million worldwide gross. Even with Spider-Man's staggering estimated production budget of $250 million, the film has already managed to make that back.
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However, due to licensing and profit sharing between overseas distributors, foreign sales don't necessarily mean huge earnings for the studio, so the film has to continue to perform well in the US for the movie to really be a major hit. Also, while the film's production budget was massive, its advertising campaign was likely as large or larger, and Sony will have to earn that back as well for Spider-Man 2 to be considered a mega-hit.
Also, The Amazing-Spider-Man 2 didn't quite live up to the debut box office earnings of April's release of another Marvel superhero Captain America, whose film made $95 million in its first weekend, and had a much better critical response.
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Captain America: The Winter Soldier had an impressive 89% critics score and a 94% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes and was bolstered by word of mouth and repeat viewings. However The Amazing Spider-Man 2's lukewarm 54% critics score and 75%audience score could speak volumes in terms of the film's second weekend earnings decline. If audiences don't love it, they won't come back to see it again.
Meanwhile, all other studios had the good sense to not release any major films to compete against the weekend's obvious giant.
Last weekend's winner The Other Woman dropped to second, earning $14.2 million, bringing it's domestic total to $47 million, breaking past the film's $40 million budget.
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Miraculously, the faith-based film Heaven Is For Real stayed in third, earning $8.7 million for a total of $65.6 million, off a $12 million budget. With massive faith-targeted projects like this and God's Not Dead, it's clear that religious films will likely have an even stronger resurgence in the coming year.
Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Solider actually couldn't hold its own against a young boy seeing heaven, and dropped two placed to fourth, snagging an additional $7.7 million.
The family-friendly animated film Rio came in fifth with $7.6 million for a domestic total of $106.4 million, finally breaking past its $103 million production budget.
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The Paul Walker action film Brick Mansions moved down from fifth to sixth with $3.5 million, while the young-adult action thriller Divergent actually gained two steps back and moved from ninth back up to seventh with $2.1 million.
The found-footage horror The Quiet Ones earned $2 million putting it in eighth, while God's Not Dead and The Grand Budapest Hotel both made surprising returns to the top ten, with God's Not Dead moving up from 11th to ninth with $1.76 million and Grand Budapest rounding out the top ten in 10th with $1.73 million.
1. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - $92 million
2. The Other Woman - $14.2 million
3. Heaven Is For Real - $8.7 million
4. Captain America: The Winter Soldier – $7.7 million
5. Rio 2 – $7.6 million
6. Brick Mansion – $3.5 million
7. Divergent – $2.1 million
8. The Quiet Ones – $2 million
9. God's Not Dead – $1.76 million
10. The Grand Budapest Hotel – $1.73 million
