Despite mixed reviews, ‘Spider-Man’ leads weekend box office

NEW YORK — Spider-Man can still sling it at the box office.

“The Amazing Spider-Man 2” debuted with $92 million in North American theaters over the weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was a solid opening for Sony’s Columbia Pictures, which has released five movies about Marvel’s web-slinging superhero in the last 14 years.

Last week’s No. 1 film, the female revenge comedy “The Other Woman,” starring Cameron Diaz, slid to a distant second with $14 million in its second weekend.

The release of “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” essentially kicks off Hollywood’s summer season and its annual parade of sequels and spectacle. Marvel movies have regularly commenced summer moviegoing in recent years, and the “Spider-Man 2” opening begins the season with a business-as-usual blockbuster performance.

The rebooted “Spider-Man” franchise starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone isn’t performing quite as strongly as Sam Raimi’s trilogy with Tobey Maguire. On opening weekends, the Raimi films grossed, in order: $114.1 million, $88.2 million and $151.1 million.

The “The Amazing Spider-Man,” also directed by Marc Webb, opened on a Tuesday in 2012, making $62 million on its debut weekend and $137 million over its first six days.

The new sequel, which began rolling out overseas two weeks ago, is also doing huge international business. It has already grossed $161 million abroad, and it added another $116 million over the weekend.

That included $10.4 million from China, where it opened Sunday on a record 11,002 screens. And it set a record for Hollywood titles in India with a $6.5 million debut.

“Everywhere we opened just popped,” said Rory Bruer, head of domestic distribution for Sony.

Domestically, families made up 33 percent of the audience of the PG-13 “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” a high percentage for a superhero film.

“It did seem to have a very strong component to the film, which we felt was an opportunity,” Bruer said. “It also lends itself to a picture that will be around the market for a while, too.”

But as Hollywood’s summer rolls on, the competition gets stiffer. In two weeks, Warner Bros. opens the highly anticipated monster movie “Godzilla.”

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for box-office tracker Rentrak, said that shouldn’t pose problems for the Marvel juggernaut.

“In the summer, two weeks is a lot of time between blockbusters,” Dergarabedian said. “You don’t see this kind of consistency in a particular genre that often.”

“Spider-Man” follows Marvel’s “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” released by Disney, by just a month. (The “Captain America” sequel is still in the top 5, with $7.8 million in its fifth week.)

The marketplace made way for “Spider-Man” over the weekend with no other new wide releases. Sony’s “Heaven Is for Real” continued to appeal to faith-based audiences, hauling in $8.7 million in its third week.

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Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, latest international numbers are also included. Final domestic figures will be released on Monday.

1. “The Amazing Spider-Man 2,” $92 million ($116 million international).

2. “The Other Woman,” $14 million.

3. “Heaven Is for Real,” $8.7 million.

4. “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” $7.8 million.

5. “Rio 2,” $7.6 million.

6. “Brick Mansions,” $3.5 million.

7. “Divergent,” $2.2 million.

8. “The Quiet Ones,” $2 million.

9. “God’s Not Dead,” $1.8 million.

10. “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” $1.7 million.

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Universal and Focus are owned by NBC Universal, a unit of Comcast Corp.; Sony, Columbia, Sony Screen Gems and Sony Pictures Classics are units of Sony Corp.; Paramount is owned by Viacom Inc.; Disney, Pixar and Marvel are owned by The Walt Disney Co.; Miramax is owned by Filmyard Holdings LLC; 20th Century Fox and Fox Searchlight are owned by 21st Century Fox; Warner Bros. and New Line are units of Time Warner Inc.; MGM is owned by a group of former creditors including Highland Capital, Anchorage Advisors and Carl Icahn; Lionsgate is owned by Lions Gate Entertainment Corp.; IFC is owned by AMC Networks Inc.; Rogue is owned by Relativity Media LLC.