Who says people love to stay home and stream movies?
Proving that theatrical is still king, Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home rang up a massive $50M, the third-best preview night ever and the most money Sony has ever seen for a Thursday preview night.
It easily buries the previous high we’ve seen during the pandemic, that being for Disney/Marvel’s Black Widow at $13.2M. It also blows away Sony’s previous Thursday preview high, which was for Spider-Man: Homecoming — the first Tom Holland MCU Spider-Man — which minted $15.4M in 2017.
Among the all-time Thursday preview records — and granted that Spider-Man screenings started at 3 p.m. — the pic ranks behind 2019’s Avengers: Endgame ($60M, off 6 p.m. showtime starts) and 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($57M).
Sources tell me that a $100M opening day for the Jon Watts-directed multiverse title is likely, and even if it falls short, that’s still nothing to cry about because Spider-Man: No Way Home is the biggest movie we’ve seen in a long time. Avengers: Endgame‘s Thursday repped 38% of its first $157.46M opening day, Force Awakens’ preview night repped 48% of its $119.1M Friday, while Last Jedi‘s $45M Thursday represented 43% of its $104.7M Friday.
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Overall box office analytics firm Market EntTelligence reports that more than 3.7M people saw Spider-Man: No Way Home on Thursday night, 95% after 3 p.m. On average, exhibition had 16 showtimes for the film on the night. Moviegoers paid an average of $13.56 per ticket.
Sony Pictures
Out of the gate, Spider-Man: No Way Home gets five stars on Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak from general audiences and a massive 95% positive rating and an awesome 89% definite recommend. Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s Thursday night crowd — and we do mean that — was 65% men, 35% women. Men under 25 led at 38% (best grade with 98%), men under 25 were 27% (95% grade), women under 25 were 21% (94%), while women over 25 repped 14% (88%). Spidey pulled in 33% Caucasian, 33% Hispanic and Latino, 17% Black and 13% Asian. The 18-34 moviegoing demo represented a huge 75% of last night’s tickets sales. Those over 45 were 6%. Parents loved No Way Home, giving it five stars and 100% across all demos, while kids under 12 were a little picky, giving it 4.5 stars but a total positive of 96%.
Before Sony made its preview number official this morning, No. 1 and 3 circuits AMC and Cinemark already were declaring records, along with online ticket seller Fandango. Imax also had plenty to brag about with a $10.1M WW haul for No Way Home, $5.14M coming from domestic — making it the large format exhibitor’s third-biggest Thursday night ever.
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AMC saw its biggest opening night for the month of December and the second-best after Avengers: Endgame, with Spider-Man: No Way Home selling 1.1 million tickets in the U.S. on Thursday. That also was the single highest number of people watching one movie on one day at AMC’s U.S. theaters during all of calendar years 2020 and 2021.
“Needless to say, we are ever so happy to see a record-setting number of people returning to the cinema to capture the magic offered at AMC movie theatres,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “Yesterday for its opening night, we hosted some 1.1 million guests to watch Spider-Man: No Way Home at our U.S. theatres. Our congratulations go to Sony Pictures for this wonderfully successful new movie.”
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Aron added, “Spider-Man clearly indicates to us that consumers in large numbers desire the experience that only AMC theaters can provide, and our amazing theatre teams were prepared for the moment.”
The circuit’s share price has been down from its $30-$40 price levels of November, currently at $28.87. But AMC saw pickup this morning thanks to Spidey, +4.48 at the time of this report.
Meanwhile, Cinemark saw its biggest opening night of all time, while also setting a first-night record for their PLF XD auditoriums.
“Moviegoers flocked to our theaters last night to experience Spider-Man: No Way Home in a state-of-the-art cinematic environment, setting multiple Cinemark all-time records,” said Justin McDaniel, Cinemark’s SVP Global Content. “The sheer volume of people who came to see this film on the biggest screen, many for the first time since the pandemic, underscores the irreplaceable value of the in-theater experience, which we are thrilled to continue to offer in collaboration with our studio partners. Congratulations to the entire Sony team for a remarkable opening performance for their latest blockbuster.”
Fandango says that Spider-Man: No Way Home is already its top ticket seller of the year, outstripping all the tickets sold for the entire theatrical runs of any 2020 or 2021 title including previous ticketing champ Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. On Thursday, Fandango saw its top-performing preview day since Avengers: Endgame (Thursday, April 25, 2019) with No Way Home; it even surpassed Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (Thursday, December 19, 2019).
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Kerry Hayes/20th Century Studio
Searchlight held previews for Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, which is opening in 2,120 theaters. The pic posted $225K last night. A single digit opening for the 2 1/2 hour movie is expected. PostTrak audiences gave the pic an 80% positive and 57% definite recommend. The 18-34 demo repped 56% of all ticket buyers with 24% over 45. Men over 25 at 44% and women over 25 at 30% were the leading demos. Those 13-17 (5%) and 45-54 (9%) gave del Toro’s latest a perfect score.
We’ll have more updates for you as they come.