Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse webs up an impressive $120.5 million debut

While it should be no surprise that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse took the number one spot at the box office this weekend, it seems that humanity learned from its past mistakes with Into the Spider-Verse (which opened to a paltry $35.3 million). Pegged initially to gross $80-90 million, the second outing for Miles Morales opened to an impressive $120.5 million domestically. With an extra $88.1 million overseas, the film debuted at $208.6 million and has come in as the second-biggest opening of 2023.

Interesting to note is that in China, Across the Spider-Verse sort of floundered this past weekend. While $17.2 million isn’t necessarily bad, it does paint an interesting parallel to The Little Mermaid’s debut last week. It seems as if the Chinese audience is losing interest in American films, even when critics and audiences in the country loved Spider-Verse.

Speaking of Disney’s The Little Mermaid, the live-action reimagining of the fairytale classic saw a dropoff of around 58% from last week, grossing just $40.6 million domestically. Curiously, the film earned nearly the same amount overseas, so the overall total has climbed to $326.7 million. That’s really not good for the prospects of the movie turning a profit, especially with its budget being north of $200 million. Disney is likely worried.

As for the rest of the top 10, there aren’t many surprises here. New release The Boogeyman debuted in third with a solid haul of $12.3 million. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is still kicking around and will potentially surpass $800 million globally by the end of its run. Fast X has managed to hang onto its top 10 spot but isn’t doing the numbers you would expect from the series. The Super Mario Bros. Movie, however, has now surpassed $1.3 billion globally and has become the second-highest-grossing animated film ever.

Here is how the top 10 breaks down for this weekend. All totals listed are domestic:

1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – $120.5 million
2. The Little Mermaid – $40.6 million
3. The Boogeyman – $12.3 million
4. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 – $10.2 million
5. Fast X – $9.2 million
6. The Super Mario Bros. Movie – $3.35 million
7. About My Father – $2.1 million
8. The Machine – $1.75 million
9. You Hurt My Feelings – $769,814
10. Kandahar – $765,000