The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 box-office: excellent or just okay? Directed by Marc Webb, and starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, The Amazing Spider-Man added an estimated $20.7 million at 4,318 locations on Friday. Total after four days: $95.78m. Projected total by Sunday evening: approximately $140m after six days.
Now, even if The Amazing Spider-Man reaches $140m — and that’s open to debate — is the Spider-Man reboot a solid, remarkable hit or just an okay one? [See also THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN: Record breaker?]
Box office: The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 vs. predecessors
For comparison’s sake: Directed by Sam Raimi, and starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Willem Dafoe (as the Green Goblin), Rosemary Harris, and Oscar winner Cliff Robertson (Charly), Spider-Man opened on Friday, May 3, 2002, scoring $114.84 million (approx. $156.5 million today) on its first weekend out — in other words, in three days. Spider Man 2, debuted with $40.42 million on Wed., July 3, 2004, drawing $180.07 million (approx. $229.6 million today) in its first six days. Another Friday-in-May opening, Spider-Man 3 took in $151.11 million (approx. $174 million today) on its debut weekend — once again, that means the film’s first three days of release.
And remember: none of the previous Spider-Man movies had the advantage of either 3D surcharges or wide (higher-priced) IMAX screenings.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 vs. Transformers, Batman Begins, Iron Man, X-Men: First Class
A few more comparisons: Michael Bay / Shia LaBeouf / Megan Fox’s Transformers, which opened on Monday evening, July 2, 2007, grossed $155.4 million in its first six days. Even deducting the $8.8 million earned at Monday evening shows, Transformers‘ total remains ahead of The Amazing Spider-Man‘s (if current box-office predictions are accurate): $146.6m. When inflation is taken into account, the gap widens considerably: even without the 3D-surcharge boost, Transformers earned approx. $169 million in 2012 dollars.
Christopher Nolan / Christian Bale’s Batman Begins opened on Wed., June 15, 2005. In its first six days, the Batman reboot — without the assistance of a major weekday holiday — had collected $79.72 million (approx. $98 million today) at 3,858 locations. Starring Robert Downey Jr and Gwyneth Paltrow, Iron Man brought in $121.3 million (approx. $134 million today) in its first six days in early May 2008. Last June, Matthew Vaughn’s X-Men: First Class, featuring Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, and Jennifer Lawrence, raked in $68.65 million in its first six days at 3,641 locations.
Once again, bear in mind that none of the aforementioned movies had the advantage of 3D surcharges.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 budget comparisons
Something else worth comparing: production costs. With a reported $220m-$230m budget, The Amazing Spider-Man is considerably more expensive than Spider-Man ($139 million or approx. $178 million today) Transformers ($150m or approx. $166 million today), Batman Begins ($150m or approx. $176 million today), Iron Man ($140m or approx. $150m today), and X-Men: First Class ($160m).
On the other hand, The Amazing Spider-Man cost less (adjusted) than Spider-Man 2‘s $200m (approx. $243 million today) and Spider-Man 3‘s $258 million (approx. $286 million today).
Official weekend box-office estimates will be released on Sunday. Box-office actuals come out on Monday.
In addition to Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 features Rhys Ifans (as The Lizard), Martin Sheen, Sally Field, Campbell Scott, Denis Leary, Irrfan Khan, Embeth Davidtz, Chris Zylka, Max Charles, and C. Thomas Howell.
Box-office information source: Box Office Mojo. Budget inflation adjustments via U.S. Department of Labor’s inflation index calculator.
The Amazing Spider-Man 2012 wallpaper: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures.
I’m a Spider-man fan. After seeing this movie, I appreciate the Raimi movies all the more. I’ve even ordered the third one to add to my collection.
Raimi understood the mythic tone of Spider-man and told it in the appropriate broad strokes, bright colors, and big emotions. It allows the power of the story to come through, and lets us disregard the nonsense. He understood that Peter Parker’s power is really his superhuman neuroticism more than his ability to stick to walls.
This movie has no ideas behind it. It’s hanging a indie-rom-com vibe onto a marketable story that it really doesn’t care about or understand. It creates a “realistic” tone that makes all the nonsense fair game for questioning. All those sightings and cell phone pictures, glimpse of Garfield’s distinctive hairdo, yet the police can’t compile a height, age, weight, race description of Spider-man. How does a 145lb. man stick to walls? Through his sneakers? On glass and metal? Finally, when did working class Ben and May Parker buy that NY house? It must be worth a fortune on today’s market.
This Spider-man can’t even swing through NY without the assistance of crane operators lining up, because the physics and parabolas of a real Spider-man wouldn’t allow it. Give me a break.
I appreciate the box office analysis. I’m interested in how it will go over with the public in the longer run. My guess is, not very well. This won’t be getting repeated play on the kiddies DVD players. It’s glum and morose. Batman Begins went on to grow in positive buzz. And for all it’s excessive realism, it keeps the audience too busy with intricate plots. It also has themes of fear, identity, and chaos. And it has a director with a distinctive style. One gets the sense that Raimi, Nolan, and Peter Jackson really own their movies. Everything from sets, actors, costumes, and soundtrack seem like it comes from their input. Webb doesn’t seem to have any control. What about that muzak soundtrack?
People won’t need the above “reasons” to dislike ASM. It simply won’t stick. But time will tell.