Sony Pictures had to try something drastically different with their Spider-Man movie franchise rights after the disappointments that were THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. Each of those films fell way short of expectations when they opened in the U.S. with $62 million and $91 million, respectively. Each of those last two Spidey films made over $700 million worldwide, but needed to push their box office totals closer to the $1 billion level to really be considered financial successes since their reported productions budgets were over $220 million, plus the huge added costs in their marketing budgets.
Enter Marvel Studios.
Sony and Marvel Studios have partnered up to bring Spider-Man into Marvel Studios' Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) with SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, and its first domestic opening weekend projections are here.
Depending on which website you check the Tom Holland, Robert Downey Jr, and Michael Keaton led movie is tracking for as low as $90 million to as high as a $108 million opening weekend here in the states. The number should increase as hype builds before its July 7 release here in the U.S. and we here at DailySuperHero.com (who aren't experts in these type of predictions but we like to guess anyway) predict is could open as big as $120 million in a best case scenario.
If SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING can open well north of $100 million then it will be a huge win for all involved. Sony is paying for the budget of the film, which is reportedly in the $160 million to $190 million range just like most Marvel Studios solo tentpole franchise films with Marvel Studios in control of the creative direction for the film. Sony will earn all the box office profits while Marvel Studios and Disney will rake in all the merchandise profits for the film; which is easily the bigger win between the two studios. Spider-Man merch sales typically are in the $1 billion range every year and this movie will/should bump that total up dramatically.
The two studios also agreed to let Marvel Studios use Holland's Spider-Man in other MCU movies as he was first introduced in last year's CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR and he will be seen next summer in AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING 2 (working title) has already been green lit by both studios and it will release in the U.S. on July 5, 2019.
Director Sam Raimi's Spidey films opened with the following totals: SPIDER-MAN opened with $114M, SPIDER-MAN 2 took in $88M and SPIDER-MAN 3 banked with a $151M domestic opening weekend.
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