TUESDAY 11 PM, 3RD UPDATE: More fireworks at the North American box office on the eve of U.S. Independence Day. My sources say Sony Pictures' superhero reboot The Amazing Spider-Man opened with $35M (though some rival studios put the number in the neighborhood of $32M tonight). It easily sets a new domestic record for a Tuesday opening ' helped by its 3D premium pricing ' and is ahead of the original 2D Transformers ($27.8M) that debuted on Tuesday July 3rd, 2007. 'That is one huge number,' a Sony exec gushed to me tonight. 'Unbelievable start to what should be a very exciting 6 days.'
TUESDAY 10 PM, 2ND UPDATE: No grosses yet. But I'm told Sony's The Amazing Spider-Man received an 'A-' Cinemascore from audiences (an 'A' from under age 18 moviegoers) which should spur good word of mouth.
TUESDAY 6 PM UPDATE: Usually if a movie is opening well in 4,318 North American theaters, the Hollywood studio wants to shout the results. For some reason Sony Pictures today is 'trying to keep a lid' on the North American grosses for its 3D The Amazing Spider-Man, in the words of one exec to me. 'At the end of the matinees we still have an incredible story to tell, especially knowing its a Tuesday night and not a Friday night. But the numbers don't lie.' Frankly, I don't get all the secrecy. Especially because, after claiming $7.5M in midnight shows and another $9.3M in matinees and pre-sales so far, the studio already has put $16.8M in the bank. 'Is it crazy to hope to get $9M or $10M more out of a Tuesday night?' a Sony exec asks me. No, but what's crazy is to keep it to yourselves. But the studio's extreme nervousness reflects concerns over how this rebooted franchise will go over just 10 years after the original, even more so because of what Sony's rivals have characterized as flat tracking even though this is Marvel's most popular character.
The Marc Webb-directed superhero actioner starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone opened with $7.5 million in midnight showings from 3,150 theaters. (IMAX took in $1.2M on 300 screens for $4,000 per screen). That's the same result as such blockbuster films as Iron Man 2, Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, and even Spider-Man 3 (playing in only 3,031 venues). 'We're right up there with big boys, giving us a great hand-off,' a Sony exec told me this morning. But none were 3D pics with its premium ticket prices. Its early international box office also has been stellar and so is this U.S./Canada debut. Last weekend The Amazing Spider-Man opened foreign with $50.2M, which was bigger than Marvel's The Avengers in some of its 13 international markets. It swept the Asian box office this weekend as the much-anticipated actioner opened early in a handful of overseas territories.
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