A critically adored animated “Spider-Man,” based on the comic-book story of biracial teen Miles Morales, led the weekend box office in North America, fending off several other new releases.
Sony Pictures’ “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” collected $35.4 million from 3,800 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, Comscore Inc. estimated in an email Sunday. Analysts at Box Office Pro were forecasting $36 million. The picture cost $90 million to make, according to Box Office Mojo.
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The first black Spider-Man, an Afro-Latino character created in 2011, was inspired by U.S President Barack Obama and actor Donald Glover. He appears in the comics after the death of Peter Parker. The first film reference was in last year’s live-action reboot “Homecoming,” where Glover appears as a character who reveals he has a nephew named Miles. RottenTomatoes gave the picture a 98 percent score. Awards contenders opened or expanded to more theaters. “The Favourite,” a Fox Searchlight film about Britain’s 18th century monarch, Queen Anne, had sales of $2.57 million. It has the fourth-best odds to win the Oscar for best picture. “If Beale Street Could Talk,” via Annapurna Pictures, earned $219,000 in limited release. It’s the first English-language adaptation of a James Baldwin work and is directed by Barry Jenkins, whose “Moonlight” won best picture last year. “Mortal Engines,” an effects-heavy $100 million young-adult book adaptation, collected $7.5 million for Universal Pictures, making a profitable theatrical run problematic. It was outdone by Clint Eastwood’s “The Mule,” came in second place with $17.2 million, in line with the Box Office Pro forecast of $17 million. Fox trotted out a PG version of “Deadpool,” trying to attract a younger crowd by bleeping out the foul-mouthed antihero’s cuss words. It took in $2.6 million. Year to date, the office take of $11.1 billion is up 8.6 percent from the same period last year.