Fireworks? Barbecues? Baseball? Hey, they were all viable ways to celebrate Independence Day during this weirdly elongated holiday “weekend.” But it seems as though when folks weren’t shooing away flies from the potato salad or slapping mosquitos in the ballpark, they were getting bitten by another sort of bug. Or, more accurately, a spider.
The Amazing Spider-Man, Marvel’s reboot of its best-known superhero, crawled into theaters on Tuesday, hung around all week and spun its way to a strong, box-office-winning weekend. It banked $65 million from Friday-through-Sunday, giving it a total six-day haul of $140 million.
OK, so those aren’t exactly Avengers-like numbers (which, as you recall, smashed its way to about $207 million its opening weekend). But when you look at the superhero reboot genre as a whole, Spidey did just fine over the three-day weekend, finishing ahead of the likes of Batman Begins in 2005, The Incredible Hulk in 2008 and only slightly behind last year’s X-Men: First Class. And, with The Dark Knight Rises still waiting in the wings, I’m wondering whether 2012 might be the most lucrative year for superheroes yet—even better than 2008, when The Dark Knight, Iron Man and the weird superhero offshoot Hancock finished No. 1, 2 and 4 for the year and collected close to $1.1 billion in North America.
Ted, last week’s champ, slid to No. 2 this weekend with $32.6 million. Brave, Disney/Pixar’s plucky summertime entrant, hopped down to third place with $20.2 million. The Scottish fairy tale has made $174.5 million so far, which makes it (a little unbelievably) only the third highest-grossing animated film this year, behind Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax ($213.5 million) and Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted ($196 million).
Savages, a truly savage R-rated flick from director Oliver Stone, slashed and burned its way to a fourth-place, $16.2 million debut. I can’t say I’m sad that Savages underperformed, but I do feel a little sorry for star Taylor Kitsch. He’s headlined three movies this year (John Carter and Battleship were the others), and all three have bombed.
Magic Mike rounds out the Top 5 with $15.6 million. The weekend’s third big release, Katy Perry: Part of Me, settled in at No. 8 with a $7.2-million take.
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