Columbia Pictures
2nd UPDATE 9:47AM with early exit polls after initial 7:35AM post: Sony Animations Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse swung into Thursday grossing $3.5 million from showtimes starting at 5 PM from 3,321 locations, a solid number for this time of year.
In early exits from last night, audiences loved Spider-Verse with 5-stars on PostTrak and a 90% positive and a very strong 80% definite recommend. Again these figures fluctuate throughout the weekend as the Screen Engine/ComScore service polls continually from Friday to Sunday.
Sony is still seeing the weekend at $30M; the industry was betting mid $30Ms prior to today, but with this type of Thursday for the Bob Persichetti-, Peter Ramsey- and Rodney Rothman-directed film, Spider-Verse has to overindex (in which case many believe that could be in the $40M range). Fandango noticed yesterday that pre-sales for Spider-Verse were far ahead of Lego Ninjago at the same point in time; that Warner Bros. pic opened to $20.4M in September 2017.
Spider-Verses Thursday number is higher than Universal/Illuminations Tuesday night $1.7M previews for Sing two years ago when it launched before Christmas, turning in an opening day of $11M. Some are comping this movie to Warner Bros Lego Batman, and Spider-Verse beat the Thursday $2.2M previews of that film, which posted a $14.4M opening day and $53M opening.
Keep in mind Spider-Verses numbers are great for a family animated film at a time when no K-12 schools are off and 23% kids and 10% parents showed up last night. Four percent of them will begin going on break Monday, according to ComScore. We heard throughout the week from distribution sources that despite the shock-and-awe of Spider-Verses novel animation, and its award winning critical acclaim to date as Best Animated Feature from the New York Film Critics Circle, that Spider-Verse would likely skew younger than the regular Marvel fanboy film. Well, 67% of the audience last night were non-families, with men 41% over 25 coming out, followed by guys under 25 at 26%. Both enjoyed the movie with men under 25 giving it 96% and men over 25 a 91% positive score. Boys under 12 outnumbered girls 70% to 30% in turnout.
Universal/Media Rights Capitals Mortal Engines also started its engines last night from 7 PM shows, making only $675,000 from 2,600 locations — a disaster for film that the production claims cost $100M+ but which rival financiers say is higher (around $150M). How bad is that number? Well, Universal made more money from its Legendary bombs Warcraft and The Great Wall on their preview nights with $3.1M and $970K, respectively. Versus other sci-fi bombs, Mortal Engines made less than Warner Bros Jupiter Ascending ($975K) and EuropaCorps Valerian ($1.7M). This Peter Jackson/WingNut produced sci-fi fantasy film is expected to sputter out with $8M-$11M over three days. Why can we bank on that number? Because Thursday exits were not good at 62% positive and two and a half stars and a low 40% definite recommend for this two-hour and eight minute pic. In fact, Universal made more last night from Illuminations The Grinch, which led all regular pics in release with an estimated $990K, which ended its fifth weekend with $19.4M and a running total of $227.7M. Men over 25 at 45% were the biggest draw here, followed by Women over 25 at 28% and then men under 25 with 16%.
Warner Bros/BRON Studios has the Clint Eastwood crime drama The Mule this weekend in 2,588 locations. Projections are in the mid- to high-teens for the movie, which was directed by and stars the Oscar winner.
20th Century Foxs Once Upon a Deadpoolfell an estimated 59% with $376K to eighth place yesterday, from its $910K (updated by studio) Wednesday reboot.
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