Amazing Spider-Man's Midnight Opening—How Big Was It?

Amazing Spider-Man's Midnight Opening—How Big Was It?

by Joal Ryan Tue., Jul. 3, 2012 9:41 AM PDT

The Amazing Spiderman, Spider-Man, Andrew Garfield

Columbia Pictures

The Amazing Spider-Man was more sequel than reboot in its midnight debut.

The Andrew Garfield-Emma Stone film took in an estimated $7.5 million early Tuesday, equaling the witching-hour take of the biggest-opening Tobey Maguire-Kirsten Dunst adventure, the franchise's studio reported this morning.

"We had a fantastic start," Sony's Steve Elzer announced in an email.

Amazing Spider-Man's midnight performance is the summer's best since The Avengers blew out the lights in May.

Among more recent releases, Ridley Scotts Prometheus grossed $3.6 million in opening-night 12 a.m. screenings; last weekend's box-office champ, Ted, took in $2.6 million.

Heading into The Amazing Spider-Man's debut, Sony had been projecting a six-day, Tuesday-Sunday gross of $110 million-$120 million—a take that'd be big for a superhero reboot, but a guestimate that might not be big enough considering the midnight performance.

"I think portends a bigger opening week than was first expected," Hollywood.com box-office analyst Paul Dergarabedian said.

Spider-Man 3, the final Maguire-Dunst film, released in 2007, scored $7.5 million in midnight screenings, en route to a franchise-best $151.1 million three-day, opening weekend.

Here's a recap of the top 10 all-time midnight debuts, per Hollywood.com stats: