Spidey Swings Back To Action With $140M Launch

First Published: July 8, 2012 3:50 PM EDT Credit: Sony Pictures

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LOS ANGELES, Calif. -- Your new friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has spun himself a $65 million opening weekend and $140 million in his first six days at U.S. theaters.

Overseas, Sony’s “The Amazing Spider-Man” added $129.1 million, raising its international total to $201.6 million and worldwide haul to $341.2 million since it began rolling out a week earlier in some foreign markets.

The movie started off as a smaller domestic moneymaker than the previous three Spidey films, but it laid to rest objections that it was too soon to relaunch the superhero franchise.

The new origin story for the Marvel Comics web-slinger comes just five years after “Spider-Man 3,” Tobey Maguire and director Sam Raimi’s final movie in a series that shattered box-office records.

“This was never modeled or was never meant to be ‘Spider-Man 4.’ This wasalways a relaunch with a new cast and different stories to tell, and quite frankly, it succeeded beyond our imaginations,” said Rory Bruer, Sony’s head of distribution.

The previous weekend’s No. 1 film, Universal’s teddy-bear comedy “Ted,” fell to second-place with $32.6 million, raising its domestic total to $120.2 million.

Among new releases, Oliver Stone’s drug-war thriller “Savages” opened at No. 4 with a solid $16.2 million weekend, also for Universal. Paramount’s concert film “Katy Perry: Part of Me” failed to pack in the pop star’s fans, debuting at a distant No. 8 with just $7.2 million.

Going into wide release after two weekends in a handful of theaters, Woody Allen’s ensemble romance “To Rome with Love” broke into the top-10 with $3.5 million. The Sony Pictures Classics release lifted its domestic total to $5.3 million.

“The Amazing Spider-Man” bumped up U.S. receipts, with Hollywood pulling in an estimated $200 million overall for the weekend, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com. That’s a 28.6 percent increase over the same weekend last year, when “Transformers: Dark of the Moon” led with $47.1 million in its second weekend.

Leading up to the domestic debut of “Amazing Spider-Man” last Tuesday, Hollywood had expectations of a six-day total of around $120 million for the film by the end of Fourth of July weekend. That proved a conservative projection, but studio executives genuinely were uncertain how well the film might do so close on the heels of the previous “Spider-Man” series.

“To expect the kind of numbers the first ‘Spider-Man’ did or the second or third would have been kind of reaching,” said Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “For a reboot that people definitely were on the fence about initially, I think this is a really strong performance.”

Raimi and Maguire’s “Spider-Man” was the first movie to top $100 million in a singleweekend, opening with $114.8 million in 2002. “Spider-Man 3” set a new weekend record with its $151.1 million debut, which has since been surpassed by such films as 2008’s “The Dark Knight,” last year’s “Harry Potter” finale and the current record-holder, “The Avengers,” with $207.4 million in May.

While it took more than a weekend for “The Amazing Spider-Man” to put up numbers comparable to the earlier Spidey flicks, the film has good reviews and fan reaction for the new cast and crew to build on in subsequent installments.

“With a film that is a relaunch like this, with a new cast, a new director, there are a lot of pieces. You have to prove yourself, just like ‘Batman Begins’ had to prove itself and went on to have such incredible success with ‘Dark Knight,’” Sony’s Bruer said. “This is a new trilogy and a new era of Spider-Man. We certainly have very much in our minds where it’s going to go with the story arc. It’s just going to be an incredible several years with this relaunch. We have a lot of great stories to tell.”

Andrew Garfield stars as teen orphan Peter Parker, who becomes a vengeful vigilante and later an urban protector after the bite of a mutant spider gives him super strength, agility and senses. Marc Webb (”(500) Days of Summer”) directed the film, which co-stars Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Sally Field and Martin Sheen.

“Amazing Spider-Man” had a price advantage over its predecessors. This was the first 3-D Spidey movie, earning 44 percent of its domestic revenues from 3-D screenings, which cost a few dollars more than 2-D shows.

The film is the centerpiece of a huge superhero summer that started with “The Avengers” and continues with the July 20 debut of “The Dark Knight Rises,” the finale of Christopher Nolan and Christian Bale’s Batman trilogy.

Director Stone’s “Savages” chronicles a bloody war between California marijuana growers and a merciless Mexican cartel trying to muscle into their business. The ensemble cast includes Salma Hayek, John Travolta, Benicio Del Toro, Blake Lively, Taylor Kitsch and Aaron Johnson.

Perry’s “Part of Me” raised its domestic total to $10.3 million since opening Thursday. Her mix of 3-D stage show and backstage documentary was a bust compared to such concert hits as 2008’s “Hannah Montana&Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” which opened with $31.1 million, and last year’s “Justin Bieber: Never Say Never,” which premiered with $29.5 million.

“Part of Me” did not even live up to the 2009 dud “Jonas Brothers: The 3D Concert Experience,” with a $12.5 million debut.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Hollywood.com. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. “The Amazing Spider-Man,” $65 million ($129.1 million international).

2. “Ted,” $32.6 million ($15 million international).

3. “Brave,” $20.2 million ($4.2 million international).

4. “Savages,” $16.2 million.

5. “Magic Mike,” $15.6 million.

6. “Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Witness Protection,” $10.2 million.

7. “Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted,” $7.7 million ($6.4 million international).

8. “Katy Perry: Part of Me,” $7.2 million ($2.3 million international).

9. “Moonrise Kingdom,” $4.6 million.

10. “To Rome with Love,” $3.5 million.