‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ Kicks Off With Rare Midnight Shows: Box Office – Deadline

In a complete throwback to the way films use to open back in the early aughts, Sony began previews at midnight for Marvel’s Spider-Man: Far From Home in under 1,000 theaters. The studio is not reporting these numbers this morning, but we hear Far From Home made $2.8M-$3M from a handful of theaters, and note the sequel didn’t play in Canada. Before you jump to conclusions on that gross, read on, but let’s just say sources this morning are very impressed with the pic’s limited midnight release. As far as we know, Far From Home didn’t play at 2am, 3am, or 4am. This morning Far From Home is in full play at 4,634 — the widest July release ever. Already, after a weekend release in China, Hong Kong and Japan, Far From Home counts $110.8M.

Note, no studio has launched a pic at midnight, arguably since 2012’s The Dark Knight Rises, and it’s really an apples-to-oranges comparison to put Far From Home up there with other full-blooded Thursday night previews, especially given the small number of theaters last night.

Some in the industry wondered why Sony launched Far From Homeat midnight rather than a 7PM (or earlier) blast. Much of that has to do with July 4 falling on a Thursday. Originally Far From Home was set to open on July 5 and Sony moved it ahead of the July 4th holiday to get some steam, which rivals in distribution have praised. In doing this, it didn’t make sense to open Far From Home on Wednesday (with Tuesday previews) since it’s bound to be a notorious travel day per auto club AAA with close to 49 million people travelling nationwide for the holiday. So, Tuesday it was. Not to mention, Tuesday is the best weekday during the week gross-wise with Monday typically dipping from Sunday.

In the wake of Warner Bros.’ Dark Knight Rises and the 2012 Aurora, CO. shooting, studios largely retreated from midnight launches for pics, however, such films continued to play at that time and throughout the wee hours of the morning thereafter, i.e. most recently Avengers: Endgameback in April where it had showtimes at 2am, 3am, and 4am at the AMC and Regal on 42nd Street in NYC.

Sony’s Spider-Man: Homecoming,the studio’s first crossover with the Marvel Cinematic Universe back in July 2017, previewed at 3,450 locations on its first Thursday and grossed off 7PM showtimes, $15.4M, repping the studio’s best preview night to date. Homecoming wound up being the studio’s second biggest opening of all-time at $117M behind Spider-Man 3‘s $151.1M.

Sony is conservatively projecting $125M for 6-days for Far From Home, but rival estimates believe the pic has Avengers: Endgamegas in the tank and can zoom to north of $140M or $150M. By Sunday, global estimates should reach a half billion for the Jon Watt-directed movie.

Source: Deadline.com

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