Amazing Spider-Man’s midnight debut draws $7.5 million

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This summer is host to a massive number of films based on comic book properties. The Avengers, The Dark Knight Rises, The Amazing Spider-Man; all big-name superheroes, all hitting theaters in the span of a few months. This is undeniably great news for comic book geeks and anyone who enjoys the spectacle of millions of dollars of CGI being burned in service of our modern hero myths, but it’s also entertaining to watch these massive films (and the studios responsible for them) compete with one another to see which film can make the biggest impact and pull in the most money.

After it debuted in theaters at midnight last night, The Amazing Spider-Man is doing reasonably well — though it certainly won’t win the summer.

According to Deadline, the film managed to rake in an impressive $7.5 million at its midnight showings around the US. That figure puts it neck and neck with “such blockbuster films as Iron Man 2, Pirates Of The Caribbean 2, and even Spider-Man 3.” This is in addition to the $50.2 million the film earned when it opened in select international markets last week. Sony seems quite pleased by the result, with one unnamed executive saying, “We’re right up there with big boys, giving us a great hand-off.”

Getting back to that “let’s throw all these movies into an arena and make them fight to the death for our amusement” idea that we hinted at above, it should be noted that while Spidey’s film is doing nicely, it’s still lagging far behind the benchmark set by this year’s other big Marvel superhero film, The Avengers. You may recall that film pulling in $18.7 million during its midnight screenings, and accumulating a massive $334.3 million from foreign markets prior to seeing wide release in the United States. The Avengers seems to have won this round. While The Amazing Spider-Man could theoretically rally to earn more money overall than The Avengers, we feel it prudent to remind you all that the latter film has, to date, earned almost $1.5 billion worldwide.

So, with that competition all but sewn up, what’s next? Well, Christopher Nolan’s third and final Batman film, The Dark Knight Rises, hits theaters on July 20, and based on Nolan’s past success with the character Bat-fans should be lined up around the block to catch the film ASAP. Does that mean it will top The Avengers? For that matter, does that mean it will top The Amazing Spider-Man? Don’t think that just because Spidey’s movie didn’t beat The Avengers that it isn’t doing quite well: it is, it just isn’t quite capable of competing with one of the highest grossing films of all time.

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