Looking at the box office chart for April 22, 2024, might give you a little bit of whiplash. Of course, there's new releases like A24's Civil War and horror movie Abigail in the top five, but there's also... a beloved superhero sequel from 2004.
You can thank Sam Raimi and Sony Pictures for that, as the studio's re-release of Spider-Man 2 - part of a larger re-release of all eight Spider-Man movies - began yesterday to pretty great results. IGN has confirmed with Sony that Spider-Man 2 grossed $805k from 467 locations at the domestic box office on Monday, making for an impressive per-theater average of around $1,700.
That number puts Spider-Man 2 above a number of much newer releases. Other studio figures have rolled in throughout Tuesday and, per data collected by The Numbers, Spider-Man 2 was the second highest-grossing movie at the North American box office yesterday, just behind Alex Garland's buzzy new drama Civil War at $925k. Abigail, the new horror flick from Scream reboot directors Radio Silence, comes in at #3 with $742k, follow by Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire and The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.
That number also puts it above the recent haul of Raimi's first Spider-Man film, which pulled in $681k after re-releasing on April 15.
The flurry of re-releases is meant to commerate the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures. Per Sony, it's made them $1.5 million collectively so far, with six movies still left to go after Spider-Man 2 finishes its run on April 25. It'll conclude in June after Spider-Man: No Way Home swings back into theaters.
As Jeff Bock, Senior Media Analyst at Exhibitor Relations, points out, we're in something of a dry spell for comic-book movies up until Deadpool & Wolverine this summer, and audiences are proving there's still a hunger for it, even if the movies are decades old.
"Fandom still rules cinemas — as evidenced by this Spider-Man surge we’ve been seeing in cinemas with these releases," Bock tells IGN. "Superhero famine is in full effect — so audiences are feasting on this fun reissue series."
Sony is the latest studio to bet on nostalgia, with a number of others also putting older classics back into theaters. Last month, Universal Pictures re-released Shrek 2 in honor of its 20th anniversary, and Disney is celebrating the 25th anniversary of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace with a re-release in May.
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
