‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’, the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe is released to U.S. audiences on Friday.
This is the second time the character has been rebooted since he was played by Tobey Maguire in 2002 and then Andrew Garfield in 2012. Tom Holland will wear the superhero’s costume in the new film, which has been produced by Marvel Studios and Columbia Pictures, and distributed by Sony Pictures.
While the character of Spider-Man was created by Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee and Steve Ditko in 1962, it wasn’t until 2002 when the character appeared in a mainstream film. There were several attempts: episodes of a 1970’s live-action television series were released as films outside of the U.S. At one stage, James Cameron, the director of ‘Titanic’ and ‘Avatar’ produced a treatment for a ‘Spider-Man’ film.
Daniel Loria, senior overseas analyst at BoxOffice Pro, expects the new film to gross $125 million at the box office during its opening weekend and reach around $300 million in its U.S. theatrical run. He said this means the film would have the highest opening weekend in the franchise’s history but would not be the highest grossing entry.
“This title has the potential of jumpstarting the next couple of years for Sony, who have struggled with their marquee franchise for the last decade,” he told CNBC via email.
“If audiences take to it as much as critics have so far, we could be seeing a very bright future for this IP.”
To celebrate the film’s release, CNBC has looked back at the previous films in the ‘Spider-Man’ franchise using figures from cinema statistics website Box Office Mojo to see what the new film has to live up to.