Across The Spider-Verse Topples Previous Movie In Jaw-Dropping Box Office Performance
In less than two weeks, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse's ticket sales have surpassed those of its predecessor.
The recent film Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse thwipped into theaters less than two weeks ago, and it already has many fans calling it the finest Marvel movie ever made. While some fans may argue over that point, nobody can deny that this latest Miles Morales adventure is already on track to be one of the most successful spandex films in superhero history. In fact, Variety reports that this sequel film has already made more at the box office than its predecessor in only 12 days.
While it sounds amazing (spectacular and sensational, even), it’s true: the 2018 film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse earned a $384 million global box office against a budget of $90 million, making it one of the biggest hits in modern Sony history. But despite coming out only 12 days ago, Across the Spider-Verse has already managed to gross a $390 million global box office.
What makes this achievement even more impressive is that Across the Spider-Verse was up against some relatively stiff competition in the form of Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, the ambitious and well-received cinematic reboot/sequel/prequel (there really is more than meets the eye) of this long-running nostalgia property. On paper, this film is appealing to a similar audience as Marvel’s latest film (specifically, young males), but Transformers didn’t come close to capturing the same audience. What, then, helped to make this latest Spider-Man film into such a runaway success?
One immediate reason for this financial success is that Across the Spider-Verse is getting strong word-of-mouth support from hyped audiences who insist that their friends, family, and coworkers go see what the hype is all about. This word-of-mouth helped the film to have a strong second weekend where its North American audience dropped by only 55 percent. That may sound like a large drop, but the film brought in $120 million the first week and $55 million the next in North America alone, all while continuing to kill it overseas.
Another reason we think this movie succeeded, though, is that fans had five long years to get excited for the sequel since the 2018 release of the original. Think of it as the opposite of James Gunn’s proclaimed superhero fatigue: fans may have gotten sick of the fire hydrant release schedule of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but nothing else in the last half-decade of animation was anything like the first Into the Spider-Verse. Therefore, we’ve had five years to get really hyped for the continuing adventures of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacey in Across the Spider-Verse, and that enthusiasm is translating directly to box office dollars.
That makes Sony the clear winner here, with the financial success of Across the Spider-Verse demonstrating that they are capable of not just competing with Disney’s MCU but exceeding it with outstanding originality and innovation. In fact, the only real criticism of the second movie is that it ends on a cliffhanger, but the great news is that fans won’t have to wait another five years to see this story wrap up. The final entry in the series, Beyond the Spider-Verse, will be coming out in 2024.
