Sony reports this morning that Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse earned $51.75 million domestically on its opening day on Friday.
Overall, it ranks as Sony Pictures Animation’s best performance ever, and the third* best ever for an animated film, besting Toy story 4$47.4 million four years ago. only The incredibles 2 ($71.3 million) and Finding Dory ($54.75 million) opened higher.
*It is worth noting that the year 2019 Lion King the remake opened the highest of all with $77.9 million, although Disney has referred to the photorealistic animated film as a live-action remake. Sony itself also considers it Spider string‘s opening to be the third-highest among animated films.
Yesterday’s figure includes Thursday’s $17.35 million previews, but Friday’s current performance of $34.4 starts to significantly help narrow weekend projections as the film continues to perform at the high end of long-range projections and very ahead of studio expectations.
The studio now projects $113 million for the weekend, though internal models continue to match previous projections and indicate that $115 million to $120 million or slightly higher is within reach. That’s especially true with the film’s strong reception in play, holding a 97 percent audience and 95 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes as of Saturday morning.
Also opening this weekend, Boogeyman posted $4.8 million on its opening day. That figure includes Friday previews of $1.1 million. The film appears to be on track for an opening close to $13 million this weekend, as previously predicted.
As for retention, The Little Mermaid is easing less than expected due to the loss of premium screens in the Spider string as its predominantly female audience remains strong in its second weekend. The Disney remake added $11.8 million on Friday for an updated 8-day cume of $157.4 million. That puts this weekend on track for an opening weekend estimate that could top $40 million.
Meanwhile, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 added $2.9 million on Friday and now stands at $315.4 million domestically. This weekend it should cross $10 million as previously expected.
Rounding out the top five, X quickly posted $2.6 million to start the third frame yesterday. It’s now at $121.8 million through Friday and could go for a third frame above $9.5 million. Universal projects $9 million.
