BOX OFFICE: SPIDER-MAN: FAR FROM HOME blows up the 4th of July with $185 million its opening week

Welcome to the Beat’s Weekend Box Office Recap!

The first two months of summer have been all over the place with a few big hits (mostly from Disney) but then quite a few outright failures, at least when compared to previous movies in various franchises. One of the few exceptions is Lionsgate’s John Wick Chapter 3, which looks to have created another bonafide hit franchise for Keanu Reeves.  That finally dropped out of the top 10 this weekend having grossed $165.2 million, more than the first two movies combined. Maybe this summer hasn’t been bad after all.

The big story of the 4th of July weekend, though, was Sony Pictures’ eighth attempt at a Spider-Man movie (counting last year’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse). Clearly, teaming with Marvel Studios and producer Kevin Feige back in 2017 has proven to do the trick, since Spider-Man: Far from Home, the sequel to Spider-Man: Homecoming, looks to return to the franchise to the box office success of Sam Raimi‘s earlier movies.

Spider-Man: Far from Home kicked off its week early by opening on Tuesday in 4,634 theaters — the second widest release ever! — with a few scattered midnight screenings. After making $39.3 million on Tuesday and another estimated $27 million on Weds., Far from Home held up well on the 4th of July proper with $25.2 million before bumping back up to $32.5 million on Friday.  According to Sony’s weekend estimate, the sequel starring Tom HollandJake GyllenhaalZendayaSamuel L. Jackson and Jacob Batalon brought in an estimated $93.6 million over the three-day holiday weekend. Adding that to its money from earlier in the week, Far from Home grossed $185 million in its first five days.

Let’s look at some comparisons, bearing in mind that some of the previous Spider-Man movies opened on Friday or even in May, so it’s hard to make straight one-to-one comparisons. The 2012 reboot The Amazing Spider-Man had a similar release with a Tuesday opening of $35 million the day before the 4th but it then tailed off over the weekend as folks returned to work. It ended up with $137 million in its first week and grossed $262 million domestically.  Maybe Sam Raimi’s own sequel Spider-Man 2 in 2004 is a better comparison as that opened on Weds, June 30 with $40.4 million, ended up with $88.1 million over the three-day weekend and $152.4 million in its first week. That also ended up with $373 million domestic, so that does give Far from Home more hope for joining the $300 million club along with Homecoming and all three Raimi films.

Far from Home added another $395 million overseas after having gotten a bit of a head start in Asia last weekend. China still leads the way with $167 million grossed so far, followed by Korea with $33.8 million, the UK with $17.8 million and Japan with $17.3 million. Either way, it’s going to be seen as another hit for Sony Pictures, a studio that has had problems in recent years as seen by the earlier summer release Men in Black International.

Disney-Pixar’s Toy Story 4 fell to second place with $34.3 million, a decent hold of 43% in its third weekend but more importantly, the Pixar Animation sequel became the studio’s  sixth movie to cross the $300 million mark domestically.  With $306.6 million after three weeks, we’ll have to see how close it gets to $400 million, especially with Disney’s juggernaut The Lion King opening in just two weeks. Even so, it joins Disney’s other top 3 movies for the year with Spider-Man: Far from Home in fifth place for the year. Toy Story 4 has grossed another $343 million overseas, bringing its current global total to almost $650 million.

Danny Boyle‘s Yesterday (Universal) remained in third place with $10.7 million, also with a decent holiday hold of 37%, and its $36.8 million domestic gross is decent for a movie that many might feel is “very British” compared to what normally does well in North America. With another $20 million grossed overseas and a mere $26 million budget, Yesterday is going to be as a success for all involved.

New Line’s Annabelle Comes Home took fourth place with $9.8 million, down 52% from its opening weekend, with a two-week gross of $50 million, quite a bit less than previous installments.

Will Smith‘s latest summer blockbuster Aladdin is looking to be quite unstoppable. After becoming Smith’s third $300 million domestic grosser, the $7.6 million it made this past weekend puts it at $320 million. That means the Disney fantasy-adventure directed by Guy Ritchie needs less than $5 million to surpass the $325 million made by 2016’s Suicide Squad as Smith’s highest-grossing hit. (Interesting to note is that it’s been over twenty years since Smith’s earliest breakout blockbuster Independence Day in 1996, and he still seems to be a formidable box office draw for summer movies.)

Midsommar
A24 PIctures

Hereditary director Ari Aster‘s Swedish cult horror film Midsommar didn’t hold up well over the holiday week after opening with $3 million on the Wednesday before the 4th of July. Starring Florence PughJack ReynorWill Poulter and William Jackson Harper, the well-reviewed thriller was an odd choice for a 4th of July release (other than the fact that it actually IS “midsummer). Midsommar‘s $10.9 million opening week isn’t terrible, but the “C+” CinemaScore doesn’t bode well for long legs. Even if that’s better than the “D+” for Hereditary, it’s also on par with the audience ratings for Child’s Play and Brightburn, neither which had much long-term life at the box office.

Universal’s The Secret Life of Pets 2 was #7 this weekend with $4.8 million, having grossed a disappointing $140 million domestically. That’s still twice as much of the gross of Sony’s Men in Black International, which took eighth place with $3.6 million.

After a brazen cash-grab rerelease by Disney last week, Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Endgame remained in the top 10 at #9 with $3.1 million, bringing its domestic total to $847.9 million. With its overseas gross, the movie is now at $2.77 billion worldwide and less than $16 million away from Avatar‘s worldwide box office record. Will it close that gap before The Lion King‘s release? We’ll see.

Paramount’s Rocketman wrapped up the top 10 with $2.8 million and a domestic gross of $89.2 million — not terrible but also not on par with last year’s Bohemian Rhapsody.

This Week’s Top 10: 

Rank Last Week Rank Movie Studio Weekend Gross % Change Total Gross
1 New Spider-Man: Far from Home Sony $93.6 million N/A $185.1 million
2 1 Toy Story 4 Disney $34.3 million -43% $306.6 million
3 3 Yesterday Universal $10.8 million -37% $36.9 million
4 2 Annabelle: Comes Home New Line/WB $9.8 million -52% $50.1 million
5 4 Aladdin Disney $7.6 million -25% $320.8 million
6 New Midsommar A24 $6.6 million N/A $10.9 million
7 5 The Secret Life of Pets 2 Universal $4.8 million -35% $140.7 million
8 6 Men in Black International Sony $3.6 million -46% $72 million
9 7 Avengers: Endgame Marvel/Disney $3.1 million -49% $847.9 million
10 9 Rocketman Paramount $2.8 million -30% $89.2 million

The 4th of July top 10 was right in line with the same weekend last year when Marvel’s sequel Ant Man and the Wasp won the weekend with $75.8 million with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom and The Incredibles 2 following suit. The First Purge, a prequel to the horror franchise, opened in fourth place with $17.4 million.

Check back on Wednesday for The Beat‘s weekly Box Office Preview looking at two (mostly) original movies, the action-comedy Stuber, starring Dave Bautista and Kumhail Nanjiani, and the alligator thriller Crawl

7 COMMENTS

  1. Comment from film historian Thomas Doherty:

    “Well, whatever you think of MIDSOMMAR, it’s like nothing else on the multiplex dance card right now. People who whine incessantly about Hollywood’s superhero-sequel fixation might want to support the risk-taking.”

    It’ll be at least another year before I pay to see any movie with a superhero costume. I’ve had my fill for a while. But I plan to see MIDSOMMAR later this week.

  2. I’ve already seen Spider-Man Far from Home a second time and Endgame multiple times.. it will be a LONG time before I choose to sit through Midsommar again… but there are lots of fans at the Beat so you can expect more stuff about it soon.

  3. I saw ENDGAME once and haven’t had any interest in another viewing. I don’t plan to ever see FAR FROM HOME or any more Spider-Man movies. Six movies about the character (not counting appearances in Avengers and Captain America movies) were enough for me.

    And after RISE OF SKYWALKER, I’ll be done with Star Wars.

    Lately I’ve immersed myself in DVDs of movies from the ’60s and ’70s, and find them more interesting than 95% of what’s at the multiplexes.

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