In the battle for the weekend box office, it was superhero vs mermaid, with “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” nabbing the top spot from “The Little Mermaid.”
Either way, Disney wins because while “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” is made and distributed by Sony/Columbia Pictures, Spider-Man is still a Marvel character, so they still get a cut of the pie.
In fact, Disney managed to grab the next three spots this weekend, too.
Animated Spider-Man
The animated sequel “Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse” not only took the #1 spot at the domestic box office, but with $120.5 million, landed the second-biggest opening weekend of the year, according to Box Office Mojo.
It’s also the third-biggest opening weekend for any “Spider-Man” film.
Adding in another $88.1 million from its international box office debut, that brings its worldwide total to $208.6 million. It’s top three markets outside North America were China with $17.3 million, Mexico with $11.6 million, followed by the UK at $11.5 million.
The story follows Miles Morales (a.k.a. Spider-Man) and Gwen Stacy (a.k.a. Spider-Woman) as they attempt to save their fellow Spider People from the villain who goes by the name the Spot. Shameik Moore and Hailee Steinfeld returned to voice Miles and Gwen, while the rest of the voice cast includes Brian Tyree Henry, Issa Rae, Jason Schwartzman, Daniel Kaluuya, and Oscar Isaac.
It is the follow-up to 2018’s Oscar-winning “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.”
Live-Action Mermaids
As I mentioned, “The Little Mermaid” dropped to #2 after debuting at #1 last week.
It brought in $40.6 million domestically for a two week total of $186,207,067. International brought in a second week box office total of $42 million, for a two week world-wide total of $326,707,067.
Watch Out for The Boogeyman
Disney and 20th Century’s “The Boogeyman,” adapted from Stephen King’s short story of the same name, debuted this week in third place with $12.3 million domestically and $7.7 million internationally, bringing its weekend total to $20 million worldwide.
The movie was originally slated to debut on Hulu, but a last minute decision to send it to theaters proved to be a good call.
More Superheroes
Disney also grabbed the 4th spot on this week’s domestic box office with Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” in its fifth week in theaters.
It only brought in $10.2 million this week but it brings the total domestic take to $332 million. The film’s global total is now $780,111,454, making it the 2nd biggest film of 2023 so far.
Did you go out to the movies this past weekend? What did you see? Let us know in the comments.