'Spider-Man: No Way Home' tops box office as US Cinema Day draws millions
Sony re-released the superhero film with 11 minutes of extra footage that proved to be exciting to some comic book fans, bringing in $6 million from 3,935 theatres over the weekend.
"Spider-Man: No Way Home" has swung back on top of the box office during a holiday weekend where American theatres aimed to lure moviegoers with discounted $3 tickets.
The first "National Cinema Day" nationwide promotion appeared to work with the highest-attended day of the year, drawing an estimated 8.1 million moviegoers on Saturday, according to The Cinema Foundation.
The one-day event — offered on more than 30,000 screens and held in more than 3,000 theatres, including major chains AMC and Regal Cinemas — collected preliminary box office returns of $24.3 million, according the Comscore.
National Cinema Day was intended to flood theatres with moviegoers during a Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally one of the slowest weekends in the industry.
The promotion looked to prompt people to return in the fall, inspired by a sizzle reel of the upcoming films from major studios including Disney, Lionsgate, Sony and A24.
"This event outstripped our biggest expectations," said Jackie Brenneman, president of the Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the National Association of Theater Owners, in a statement.
"The idea of the day was to thank moviegoers for an amazing summer, and now we have to thank them for an amazing day."
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National Cinema Day
Some other countries have experimented with a similar day of cheap movie tickets, but Saturday’s promotion was the first of its kind on such a large scale in the US Organisers of the National Cinema Day said the event could become an annual fixture.
"This proves that people love going to the theatres," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for data firm Comscore. “Pricing is always a consideration.”
The top three performing movie titles for the day included Tom Cruise’s "Top Gun: Maverick," The Rock and Kevin Hart’s "DC League of Super Pets" and Brad Pitt’s "Bullet Train."
With never-seen footage, the re-release of the Sony and Marvel blockbuster "Spider-Man: No Way Home", starring Tom Holland and Zendaya, brought in an estimated $6 million.
"Top Gun" followed with $5.5 million, "Super Pets" garnered $5.45 million, "Bullet Train" pulled in $5.4 million and last week's top earner "The Invitation" grossed $4.7 million to round out the top five.
The re-release of Steven Spielberg’s 1975 classic "Jaws," on big screens for the first time in 3D, nabbed the final spot among the weekend's top 10 performers.
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