Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse turned its fantastic reviews into solid box office as it opened at number one and scored a December record as well for an animated film.
Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse opened to $35.3 million and finished at the top of the box office chart. This is the largest three-day animated opening of all-time in the month of December. Previously, Universal and Illumination’s Sing held that record with its $35.2 million opening. However, that debut does come with the caveat that it was part of a five-day opening that totaled $55.8 million back in December 2016.
Working in the film’s favor is that critics loved the movie as its currently 97% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes and it’s likely to be an Oscar nominee in the animated film category which will also give the film great legs through the holiday season. Casual moviegoers also liked what they saw and graced the film with a coveted “A+” CinemaScore so the future is pretty bright for Spider-Man.
Opening strong in second is The Mule with $17.5 million. The latest Clint Eastwood effort benefitted from older audiences coming out to see it which allowed to overcome some mixed reviews from critics (it’s currently 59% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes. Moviegoers enjoyed the film much more and gave it a solid “A-” CinemaScore & it should play well over the coming weeks as a solid piece of counter-programming for adult audiences.
Seeing the best hold of the top ten was The Grinch in third with $11.7 million. That’s a drop of 21.8% and now the film has about a week left to pull in as much money as it can before Christmas comes and goes. The film has grossed $239.4 million to date at the domestic box office to go along with $133.4 million internationally after adding an additional $23.3 million overseas this weekend including a $2.9 million opening in China and a $2.3 million debut in Japan.
Dipping to fourth is Ralph Breaks the Internet with $9.2 million. The dropped 42.9% which seems pretty sizeable but it should level off as it’s likely to benefit from some of the holiday rush. The film has grossed $154.1 million to date at the domestic box office.
Debuting in fifth and being called one of the bigger flops of the year is Mortal Engines with $7.5 million. The film carries a reported $100-150 million budget so this is not a great start, even if the film could be a bit inflated due to the holiday season. The film entered the weekend with abysmal reviews (it’s currently 27% rotten on Rotten Tomatoes) and its “B-” CinemaScore also doesn’t bode well for its future prospects. Internationally, Mortal Engines began its overseas run last weekend and added 11 additional markets this weekend for a total of 54 from which it brought in an estimated $11.5 million for a total of $34.8 million so far. Highlights this weekend include a #3 opening in France with an estimated $1.6 million followed by the UK ($1.59 million), Germany ($1.3 million), Italy ($869k) and Spain ($790k). The film has three major markets yet to be released made up of Mexico (Jan 4), Brazil (Jan 10) and Japan (Mar 1).
Check out the full top ten results below:
| Film | Total | % Change | Gross to Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onward | $10,601,952 | -72.9% | $60.3 |
| Bloodshot | $9,176,695 | NEW | $9.17 |
| I Still Believe | $9,103,614 | NEW | $9.10 |
| The Invisible Man | $5,890,805 | -61.1% | $64.3 |
| The Hunt | $5,304,455 | NEW | $5.3 |
| Sonic the Hedgehog | $2,522,584 | -67.3% | $145.7 |
| The Way Back | $2,356,115 | -71.2% | $13.3 |
| The Call of the Wild | $2,226,720 | -67.1% | $62 |
| Emma. | $1,295,215 | -73% | $9.9 |
| Bad Boys for Life | $1,102,208 | -63.5% | $204.2 |
