Wednesday AM Update: Tuesday box office figures To all the cynics out there who believe that the pandemic and streaming have annihilated theatrical moviegoing, well, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home just beat the final $515.2M domestic total of 2019’s Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker with $516.4M. Worldwide with $1.16 billion, Spider-Man: No Way Home is officially Sony’s top grossing movie ever, unseating 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home‘s $1.13 billion final global total.
Internationally, the film grossed $28.4 million on Tuesday, bringing its cume to $644.9M.
Rise of Skywalker was one of the last pre-pandemic tentpoles (yes, along with Sonic the Hedgehog, 1917 and Bad Boys for Life) before movie theaters shut down due to Covid. Spider-Man: No Way Home accomplished this stateside feat in 12 days, whereas it took Rise of Skywalker 91 days. No Way Home is also the highest domestic grossing film ever for Sony, No. 14 on the list of all-time grossing movies at the domestic B.O., and the 5th highest grossing MCU title stateside of all-time.
Sony reports No Way Home‘s Tuesday at a $21.3M, -14% from Sony’s reported Monday of $24.75M. Among the second Tuesdays for big Christmas movies, No Way Home ranks fourth behind 2015’s Star Wars: Force Awakens ($29.5M), 2017’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($27.7M) and 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story ($22.5M).
If that isn’t dazzling enough for you, take a look at the 12-day running domestic B.O. for the Jon Watts-directed sequel: At $516.4M, No Way Home is running 9% ahead of Avengers: Infinity War ($472M/final B.O. $678.8M), 22% ahead of Last Jedi ($423.3M/final $620.1M) and 52% ahead of Rogue One ($340.6M/final $532.1M, a number which Spidey will soon beat). No Way Home through 12 days is also pacing ahead of Black Panther by 22% ($421.9M/final $700M). Against the top two grossing movies of all-time at the domestic B.O., Force Awakens ($936.6M) and Avengers: Endgame ($858.3M), No Way Home is respectively trailing them by -14% and -20%. Overall, stateside No Way Home is third fastest movie ever to reach $500M.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is expected to have a better third weekend U.S./Canada hold than the -68% it saw in weekend 2. Slower ticket sales on Christmas Eve accounted for less-than-expected numbers. Business should be better this weekend despite New Year’s Eve on Friday.
In second Tuesday was Illumination/Universal’s Sing 2 with $7.8M, +5% from Monday, for a week’s total of $54.78M. That’s 41% behind the first Sing‘s seven days of $93M, which also opened on a Wednesday, but 27% ahead of the first seven days of Disney’s Thanksgiving Wednesday opener Encanto ($43.2M, current running total $89.3M).
Warner Bros./Village Roadshow’s The Matrix Resurrections, also playing in homes on HBO Max, is seeing an estimated Tuesday of $1.6M, -6% from Monday, for a 7-day of $24.5M.
20th Century Studios/Disney’s The King’s Man looks to have charted $1.4M in 4th, up from Disney’s reported $1.38M Monday, for a 7-day tally of $12.4M. Note, Matthew Vaughn’s MARV financed the prequel and 20th Century Studios/Disney takes a distribution fee. The big question is that after Disney misfired on this prequel, is there any future for The Kingsmen? Or is it all on Hulu and Disney+? Holiday business hasn’t been kind to 20th/Amblin/Disney’s Steven Spielberg musical West Side Story which saw an estimated $874K on Tuesday in 6th place, -3% from Monday’s $903K for a running total of $25.7M. Again a movie challenged by older audiences (35+) who aren’t ready to come out to the movies during the Omicron surge. Note these musicals typically play in the Northeast and as NRG reported last weekend, that’s one section of the country that’s fearful to attend cinemas right now.
In 5th is Lionsgate’s American Underdog, which is an adult film that’s holding up with $1.29M, +2% from Monday. That’s because it’s playing to the red states who are largely fearless about the pandemic. The Erwin Brothers’ directed movie’s 4-day gross is $8.4M.