Superheroes were once again around to save the day as “Spider-Man: Far From Home” ignited a much-needed boost in the domestic box office.
The web-slinging adventure easily dominated in North America, delivering a $185 million debut from 4,636 venues during its first six days in theaters. Sony’s “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” starring Tom Holland, got a head start by opening on the Tuesday ahead of Independence Day and collected $93 million over the traditional three-day weekend. The first Holland-led standalone, 2017’s “Spider-Man: Homecoming,” launched with $117 million.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home” set a number of records this week, including biggest Tuesday ticket sales of all time ($38 million), best Wednesday grosses for a Marvel movie ($27 million) and the second-largest Fourth of July holiday ($25 million). It also marks Sony Pictures’ biggest six-day opening weekend ever.
Overseas, the 23rd movie in Marvel’s Cinematic Universe earned $395 million, boosting its global tally to a mighty $580 million after 10 days. The superhero tentpole is performing ahead of fellow comic-book universe titles “Captain Marvel” and “Spider-Man: Homecoming” at the same point in their release cycles.
Boosted by solid reviews, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” also benefited as the must-see followup to the epic finale that was “Avengers: Endgame.” Younger males accounted for most of opening weekend audiences, with boys and men comprising 60% of crowds and viewers under the age of 25 making up 58% of ticket buyers. Moviegoers also shelled out to see Spider-Man in top-notch quality. Imax venues brought in $29 million in ticket sales worldwide, marking the best July opening for the specialty screens.
“Spider-Man: Far From Home,” which carries a $160 million price tag, picks up after the events of “Avengers: Endgame” and sees Peter Parker (Holland) on a class trip to Europe. While overseas, he is reluctantly enlisted by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) to help take down threats from an alternate dimension. Zendaya, Cobie Smulders, Jon Favreau and Marisa Tomei all returned for the sequel.
Also new to movie theater marquees this weekend was A24’s “Midsommar,” director Ari Aster’s sophomore feature. The R-rated folk horror film nabbed sixth place on box office charts, generating $6 million over the weekend and $10.9 million during its first five days of release. “Midsommar” received mostly positive reviews, though audiences seemed more divided. The movie, about a group of friends who travel to Sweden for a festival, has a mediocre C+ CinemaScore. A24 spent less that $10 million to produce “Midsommar.”
While in line with studio projections, “Midsommar’s” debut is roughly half of what Aster’s first film “Hereditary” made in its inaugural weekend. “Hereditary” bowed with $13 million last June and is still A24’s highest-grossing movie to date with $44 million in North America and $79 million globally.
After two straights weekends as box office champ, Disney-Pixar’s “Toy Story 4” slid to second place with $34 million in ticket sales during its third outing, bringing its domestic tally to a massive $306 million. The animated fourquel has picked up $650 million at the worldwide box office, with $350 million coming from international markets.
In third place, Universal’s Beatles tribute “Yesterday” earned another $10 million, a decline of just 37% from its opening weekend haul. The jukebox musical, directed by Danny Boyle, has pocketed $36.8 million in North America and $20 million overseas.
Warner Bros.’ “Annabelle Comes Home” landed at No. 4, adding $9.7 million during its second outing for a domestic bounty of $50 million. The seventh installment in the Conjuring Universe has amassed $84.6 million overseas, bringing its worldwide ticket sales to $134.8 million.
Rounding out the top five is Disney’s “Aladdin,” which added $7 million in its seventh weekend in theaters. The live-action remake has generated $320 million in North America and a huge $922 million globally, making it the third-biggest film of the year.
Elsewhere, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” gave Disney-Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” a little box office boost. The blockbuster nabbed $3.1 million at the domestic box office and another $1.4 million overseas for a massive global tally of $2.77 billion. It’s now roughly $15 million behind “Avatar” in its bid to pass James Cameron’s sci-fi epic as the biggest movie of all time with $2.78 billion in ticket sales.
Even with a mighty push from “Spider-Man: Far From Home,” the box office is still down over 8% from last year, according to Comscore. Theater owners are hoping that Disney’s “The Lion King” and Universal’s “Fast & Furious” spinoff “Hobbs & Shaw” will help draw audiences into their local multiplexes over the coming weeks.
