Weekend Box Office Report: May 2-4, 2014

Amazing Spider-Man 2 climbs to the top!

The rebooted wall-crawler returned to theaters in a big way this weekend as THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 opened at #1 with $92 million!

The sequel's first-weekend performance was far better than THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN (also directed by Marc Webb), which opened in July 2012 with $62 million. However, Andrew Garfield's second time in the websuit didn't even come close to the major release that opened over this same weekend last year, when IRON MAN 3 launched with a whopping $174.1 million.

On the topic of Marvel superhero sequels, the opening for THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2 also didn't overcome last month's CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER, which started out with $95 million on its first weekend (although Cap did have the benefit of a post-AVENGERS bump). 

Spidey's second (well, technically fifth) big-screen blockbuster, carrying a reported production cost over $250 million, has already ensnared an additional $277 million from the international crowds who got to check out the adventure a week earlier than North America. The first AMAZING SPIDER-MAN finished with $262 million domestic and $752 million globally (less than any of Sam Raimi's trilogy).

Critics weren't kind to the villain-packed sequel (54% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared to the 73% average for the first AMAZING), but audiences mostly cheered the web-slinger with a 'B+' CinemaScore (and an 'A-' average from the viewers in the coveted under-25 demographic).

Coming in second was last week's winner THE OTHER WOMAN with $14.2 million, a drop of 42% — fairly respectable considering the Cameron Diaz comedy was facing one of the summer's biggest new releases. Hanging onto third place was HEAVEN IS FOR REAL with $8.7 million and a $65.6 million total after three weeks in theaters.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER skidded down to fourth place with $7.7 million in its fifth weekend (it's up to $680 million worldwide), followed closely by RIO 2 with $7.6 million.

The bottom half of the chart got pretty beat up in the scuffle with your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, with last week's new PG-13 action flick BRICK MANSIONS keeping ahead of DIVERGENT (now seven weeks in the Top 10) and the low-budget horror release THE QUIET ONES, while GOD'S NOT DEAD and THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL resurfaced on the list to fight for last place.

Outside the chart, TRANSCENDENCE disappeared after just two weeks in the Top 10 (it may be lucky to crack $100 million worldwide), along with Disney's documentary BEARS and the spoof A HAUNTED HOUSE 2. In limited release, the British period drama BELLE had a decent $26k per-screen average, while the Elizabeth Banks romcom WALK OF SHAME got dumped with just $38k total on 51 screens.

Next weekend brings the R-rated Seth Rogen comedy NEIGHBORS and the animated LEGENDS OF OZ: DOROTHY'S RETURN, plus limited releases of Jon Favreau's food comedy CHEF, the Jesse Eisenberg doppelganger drama THE DOUBLE, the James Franco indie PALO ALTO , the Philip Seymour Hoffman drama GOD'S POCKET (directed by "Mad Men" co-star John Slattery) and the comedy MOM'S NIGHT OUT.

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