The return of a certain Friendly Neighborhood gave the summer box office the shot in the arm it needed and awoke the marketplace from the recent summer doldrums.
Opening in first, as expected, is The Mummy and Transformers: The Last Knight. Every Marvel movie is going to do well commercially these days, but Spider-Man got a strong boost from the enthusiastic word-of-mouth and longstanding popularity of the title character. People were excited to see the web head lead a great standalone movie again after so many years of divisive and poor outings.
With a global gross of $257 million, Homecoming is in excellent shape as it begins its run. It will be interesting to see how strong its legs are, however. Next weekend sees the release of War of the Planet of the Apes, another franchise sequel that's riding tremendous buzz and is anticipated by many. Theoretically, there should be room for both to succeed at the box office. Spider-Man is far more light-hearted and fun than Apes, which has been praised for its bleak and unrelenting tone. Conceivably, Apes will appeal to older moviegoers while Homecoming draws in a more family-orientated crowd. Point is, Spider-Man should do well over the next few weeks even with its competition.
In second is last week's champ, Minions and Despicable Me 2 at the same point in their respective runs, a byproduct of going up against an acclaimed Marvel movie. Still, all is not lost for the studio, since Despicable Me 3 has made a stellar $447.5 million worldwide on an $80 million budget. It's another hit for them.
In third is Baby Driver, which held very well (38 percent drop) in its second weekend and earned $12.7 million. Edgar Wright's universally-praised heist film is now up to $56.8 million domestically, already becoming the auteur's most successful film of his career.
In fourth is Wonder Woman with $10.1 million. One of DC's biggest hits only keeps adding to its record-breaking totals, which now stands at $368.7 million Stateside six weeks into its run.
Rounding out the top five is Transformers: The Last Knight with $6.3 million. Though the Michael Bay film has done well internationally, it's largely been a non-starter in the U.S. Its domestic total is a measly (for this franchise's standards) $118.9 million. For comparison's sake, Homecoming brought in $117 million in three days.
Cars 3 comes in sixth with $5.6 million. Pixar's latest is now up to $133.7 million.
The #7 movie is The House. Will Ferrell's newest comedy earned $4.8 million in its second weekend, increasing its Stateside gross to $18.6 million.
After expanding to 326 locations, romantic-comedy The Big Sick earned $3.6 million in its third weekend of release. Bolstered by positive reviews, the film has now made $6.9 million in the U.S.
Shark attack movie 47 Meters Down grossed $2.8 million over the weekend to come in ninth. The film is now up to $38.5 million domestically.
Capping off the top 10 is The Beguiled with $2 million. The drama raised its domestic total to $7.4 million.
[NOTE: These are only weekend box office estimates -- based on Friday and Saturday ticket sales coupled with adjusted expectations for Sunday. Official weekend box office results will be released on Monday, July 10 -- at which time we'll update this post with any changes.]
Source: Box Office Mojo