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'Spider-Man: Homecoming' has the second-biggest box office opening ever in the franchise
(Tom Holland is Marvel's newest superhero in "Spider-Man: Homecoming."Columbia Pictures)
Sony has proven it can still produce money-making Spider-Man movies.
After two tries with Andrew Garfield as Spidey in 2012's "The Amazing Spider-Man" and its sequel in 2014 — both of which were financial and critical duds — the studio pressed the reset button on the franchise and enlisted the help of Marvel Studios to bring the character into its coveted universe.
The result is a monster hit.
"Spider-Man: Homecoming," budgeted at around $175 million with Tom Holland in the title role, opened over the weekend with an estimated $117 million domestically, according to the studio.
That's the second-largest opening for the franchise, behind the $151 million earned by 2007's "Spider-Man 3" (starring Tobey Maguire in the lead). It's also the second-largest opening weekend ever for a Sony picture. "Homecoming" surpassed 2002's "Spider-Man" opening of $114 million to claim second place all-time.
The movie kicked things off strong on Friday with $50.5 million earned on the day (including $15.4 million from Thursday previews) and the weekend has only gotten better for Sony as the movie, which played on over 4,300 screens, continued to exceed all industry projections to easily win the weekend box office.
It also didn't hurt that the rest of the releases this weekend weren't major, so the rest of the top earners were in their second weekends. "Despicable Me 3" came in second with $34 million, and "Baby Driver" took third with $12.8 million.
This time around, it's clear fans are excited to get more movies featuring their friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.
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