Is Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse a Box Office Success?
The Spider-Man films have been a box office goldmine. Over the course of ten Spider-Man films, beginning with 2002’s Spider-Man, the Spider-Man film series has grossed approximately $8.5 billion at the worldwide box office, not to mention the additional $1.5 billion that the adjoining Sony Spider-Man Universe films have accumulated at the worldwide box office.
While Sony has, of course, devoted billions of dollars to building and developing the Spider-Man film series over the course of more than twenty years, this still represents a spectacular return for Sony, especially against an initial investment of just $7 million, which is the now measly-seeming amount that Sony paid Marvel Entertainment for the film rights to the Spider-Man character in 1998.
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Sony’s incredible run of success with the Spider-Man film series has certainly continued with the release of the latest Spider-Man film, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which is the second animated Spider-Man film, after its predecessor, 2018’s Oscar-winning Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and the second Spider-Man film to feature the Miles Morales character in the titular role.
Approximately two weeks into its theatrical release, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which has been greeted with virtually universal acclaim, is on a clear trajectory to easily surpass Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse at the domestic and worldwide box office. The only remaining question is: How far can Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse ascend at the box office?
Absence Made the Spider-Verse Stronger
Sony Pictures Releasing
The belated release of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse came approximately four and a half years after the release of the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which was released in North America in December 2018 and grossed approximately $384 million at the worldwide box office, against a reported production cost of $90 million, the lowest for any film in the series.
The only other Spider-Man film that was released within this intervening period was the non-animated Spider-Man: No Way Home, which was released in December 2021 and grossed approximately $1.9 billion at the worldwide box office against a reported production cost of $200 million, making Spider-Man: No Way Home the most commercially-successful film in the entire Spider-Man film series.
In contrast, the $384 million gross of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse represents the worst box office performance, by far, within the Spider-Man film series. Prior to the release of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, the lowest-grossing Spider-Man film was 2014’s The Amazing Spider-Man 2, which grossed approximately $708 million at the worldwide box office, against a production cost of $250 million.
The box office performance of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse was largely driven by good word of mouth, as the film’s domestic opening weekend box office gross was a modest $35.3 million, the lowest opening domestic weekend gross, by far, for any Spider-Man movie. The film’s second-weekend domestic gross was a further lackluster $16.7 million.
However, in its fourth weekend at the domestic box office, the film reversed its downward trend by grossing $18.3 million. The film’s resilience at the box office was an obvious testament to the glowing reviews the film received from audiences and critics. This enthusiasm was clearly transferred to Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, which had an opening weekend domestic gross of approximately $120.6 million, the third-highest domestic opening weekend gross in the film series.
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The Spider-Verse Has Strong Box Office Legs
Sony
In addition to its impressive $120.6 million domestic opening weekend gross, which far exceeded the studio projection of between $70 million and $80 million, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse had a robust international opening weekend gross of $87.9 million, including a strong $17.3 million from China, for a worldwide opening weekend gross of approximately $208.5 million.
The $120.6 million figure sits directly above the $117 million domestic opening weekend gross of 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming, which grossed approximately $334 million at the domestic box office, against a production cost of $175 million, while Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed approximately $804 million at the domestic box office following a whopping domestic opening weekend gross of $260 million.
In comparison, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse finished with a domestic box office gross of approximately $190 million, over five times multiple of the film’s disappointing domestic opening weekend gross.
If the final domestic gross of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse falls somewhere within these ranges, between a three to five-times multiple of the domestic opening weekend number, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is on pace for a final domestic box office gross of at least $360 million.
Moreover, assuming that the film’s final international gross matches the domestic number, as was the case with Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse should, at minimum, finish with a worldwide box office gross of at least $700 million.
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Everybody Loves Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Sony Pictures
The seemingly unanimous praise that’s been bestowed upon Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse suggests that the film will likely receive an Academy Award nomination in the Best Animated Feature category, just like its Oscar-winning predecessor. Moreover, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse already has a clear path to healthy profitability, barely two weeks after its theatrical release.
In its second weekend, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earned approximately $55.4 Million at the domestic box office, along with $47 million overseas, for a current domestic gross of approximately $225.4 Million and a current worldwide gross of about $389.9 million, past the final worldwide total for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Assuming a marketing cost of between $100 million and $125 million, the break-even point for Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is between $450 million and $500 million at the worldwide box office, not including post-theatrical revenue streams.
At its current pace, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse will reach its break-even point within the next two weeks. Moreover, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, by any measure, clearly represents another box office success story for Sony.
Source: MovieWeb
