`Spider-Man´ surpasses $1B globally in second weekend
Spider-Man: No Way Home becomes first movie of the pandemic to make a BILLION at the box office as Matrix Resurrections bombs with just $69.8 million globally in five days
Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $1.05 billion in just 12 days It has the record for the second-highest domestic opening box office behind Avengers: EndgameThe film’s commercial success is matched by its positive critical responseIt has a 93 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers praising its ‘fan service’ and emotionalityThe Matrix Resurrections, however, has only netted $22.8 million in its first five days in North America, but was expected to take in $40 millionThe film has been slammed by critics calling it a ‘recycling dump of murky effects, indifferent action and a crazily cluttered … repetitive narrative’
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The latest Spider-Man movie has soared past the global $1 billion mark in box office earnings, securing its No. 1 spot in the box office as The Matrix Resurrections tanks with just $22.8 million US takings and $69.8 million global receipts in five days.
According to studio estimates Sunday, Spider-Man added $81.5 million over the three-day weekend, down 69 percent from its first weekend – when it became the film with the second-highest opening box office ever behind Avengers: Endgame.
The Sony and Marvel film has now grossed $467 million from North American theaters, more than doubling the domestic grosses of 2021’s previous No. 1 film, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.
In total, the film made $1.05 billion in just 12 days as of Sunday. It cost $200 million to make, according to Variety.
It’s the first film of the pandemic to cross $1 billion and is tied with Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the third-fastest film ever to do so – and this without the benefit of its release in China.
Meanwhile, the fourth Matrix movie earned just $22.8 million in its first five days in North America, far below the $40 million opening industry experts had predicted.
The film, directed by Lana Wachowski and starring original cast members Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss, is currently streaming on HBO Max as well. Globally, it’s grossed $69.8 million to date.
Spider Man: No Way Home has now made more than $1 billion at the global box office
It’s also the film with the second-highest US opening weekend box office ever – behind Avengers: Endgame
The fourth Matrix also opened on Wednesday and has earned an estimated $22.8 million in its first five days in North America
The film, which features Yahya Abdul-Mateen II taking on the role of Morpheus, was expected to gross $40 million in box office earnings
The discrepancy in earnings comes as critics and theatergoers praise the latest Spider-Man movie – which sees Tom Holland’s Peter Parker fight villains from Spider-Man movies of the past as he deals with the fallout from his identity being revealed – while The Matrix Resurrections has been slammed by critics and theatergoers alike.
On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, Spider-Man: No Way Home as earned a 98 percent audience score and a 93 percent critic score.
The Matrix Resurrections, meanwhile, in which Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, must travel back into the Matrix but finds it is stronger than he remembers, earned a 66 percent critics score and a 63 percent audience score.
Critics have also praised the latest Spider-Man movie, which also features Zendaya, 25, as the superhero’s love interest Michelle ‘MJ’ Jones-Watson as well as previous Spider-Man stars Tobey Maguire, 46, and Andrew Garfield, 38.
Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly wrote that the movie goes much father than simple fan service.
‘So it’s safer maybe just to say that what seems at first like pure fan service turns out to be some of the best and by far the most meta stuff Marvel has done, tender and funny and a little bit devastating,’ she wrote.
As for the action sequences in the film, Rolling Stone’s David Fear wrote, ‘What we can say is this: Spiderman: No Way Home is a perfectly fine superhero movie. It has a couple of great set pieces — the initial fight between Ock and Holland’s Spider-Man is proof that director Jon Watts has gotten increasingly better at staging these kinds of things; there’s a dizzying chase through Escher-like cityscapes that echoes a similar sequence in the first Doctor Strange movie, yet still feels inventive.’
The reviews of The Matrix Resurrections – which has Carrie Ann-Moss reprise her role as Trinity and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II take on the role of Morpheus – however, have been more critical.
Joe Morgenstern, of the Wall Street Journal, wrote that the film is a ‘recycling dump of murky effects, indifferent action and a crazily cluttered, relentlessly repetitive narrative. It’s Groundhog Day in cyberpunk.’
Steve Prokopy, of Third Coast Review, also said it ‘feel like a book report on Neo, Trinity and the rest of the gang. And like most book reports, huge sections of it were copied off the Internet.’
Still, while the studio was hoping for a stronger box office, Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.’ head of domestic distribution, said The Matrix achieved what they were looking for as an overall strategy, including HBO Max.
The Matrix Resurrections is the last of the 18 Warner Bros. films released in 2021 to debut both in theaters and on HBO Max simultaneously.
Warner Bros unveiled the idea at the height of last winter’s COVID wave, when thousands of movie theaters remained shut across the US.
They prioritized driving subscriptions to the prestige streamer over box office receipts, although the takings of the studio’s epic Dune showed that people are still willing to see a lavish movie on the big screen, even if they can watch it at home for free.
Starting in 2022, the studio will have a 45-day exclusive theatrical window on their films.
The film has become Sony’s top-grossing domestic movie ever and has been praised by critics, with a 93 percent on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
The film stars real life couple Tom Holland as Spider Man and Zendaya Coleman as Michelle ‘MJ’ Jones
In the Matrix Resurrections, Neo, played by Keanu Reeves, left, must travel back into the Matrix but finds it is stronger than he remembers. It also features Carrie-Ann Moss reprise her role as Trinity in the film franchise
The film has been slammed by critics, with Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal writing that it is a ‘recycling dump of murky effects, indifferent action and a crazily cluttered, relentlessly repetitive narrative’
Keanu Reeves first took on the mantle of Neo in the original Matrix film that came out in 1999
Elsewhere in the box office, Universal’s Sing 2 came in second place in weekend earnings with an estimated $23.8 million. The animated musical features high-profile celebrity talent including Matthew McConaughey, Scarlett Johansson, Reese Witherspoon and Bono, as well as a jukebox soundtrack full of well-known hits.
Since its release Wednesday, it has made $41 million ($1.6 million of that came from Thanksgiving weekend showings) from North America and $65 million worldwide.
‘We’re extraordinarily pleased,’ said Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution.
Orr said the stellar CinemaScore (A+) and audience scores suggest that the film will continue to perform well in the next few weeks, when many kids are still out of school for the holidays.
In fourth place was Disney and 20th Century’s The King’s Man, a prequel to the action-comedy Kingsman series starring Ralph Fiennes.
It came in slightly under expectations with $6.4 million from the weekend and $10 million from its first five days. The audience skewed heavily male (65 percent).
The Kurt Warner biopic ‘American Underdog’ opened on Christmas Day and has made an estimated $6.2 million in its two days in release to round out the top five. Zachary Levi stars as Warner, the quarterback who went from undrafted free agent to Hall of Famer.
Paul Thomas Anderson’s ‘Licorice Pizza’ expanded nationwide on Christmas, after playing in limited release for a month, and added $2.3 million bringing its total to $3.7 million.
And right behind it was the Denzel Washington-directed drama ‘A Journal For Jordan,’ which to $2.2 million.
With just a few days left in 2021, the North American box office is currently sitting at $4.3 billion and is likely to net out around $4.4 billion. Pre-pandemic, it was normal for a year’s box office to surpass $11 billion.
‘To say was a roller-coaster year is an understatement,’ said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore, Inc. ‘The marketplace is still facing challenges from the pandemic, but what an amazing capper to one of the most incredible years ever at the box office.’
He added: ‘The future of the movie theater a year ago was a big question mark, and a year later it’s here to stay.’
Universal’s Sing 2 came in second place with an estimated $23.8 million
