Spidey swings back to action with $140m launch

LOS ANGELES (AP):

Your new friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man has spun himself a $65-million opening weekend and $140 million in his first six days at US theatres.

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 Comic's 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 was always a relaunch with a new cast and different stories to tell, and quite frankly, it succeeded beyond our imaginations," said Rory Bruer, Sony 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 a distant No. 8 with just $7.2 million.

Going into wide release after two weekends in a handful of theatres, 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 US 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 per cent increase over the same weekend last year, when Transformers: Dark of the Moon led with $47.1 million in its second weekend.

Exceeding expectations

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."

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 instalments.

"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 per cent 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.

Here are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theatres, according to Hollywood.com:

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 ($300,000 international).

10. To Rome with Love, $3.5 million ($2.4 million international).