Spider-Man: Homecoming has recorded its biggest box office kick-off outside North America in South Korea. The film, which officially launches Tom Holland as the newest web-slinging superhero, is the first out of the unprecedented partnership between Marvel Studios and Sony Pictures Entertainment in bringing this third iteration of the character on the big screen.
Homecoming picks up after the events of Captain America: Civil War where Peter Parker first encountered other superheroes of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Driven by his eagerness to upgrade from street-level hero to a card-carrying member of the Avengers, he tries to prove himself to Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.) by taking down villain Adrian Toomes aka Vulture (Michael Keaton), all while maintaining the life of a normal high school kid. The movie has already raked in over $15 million from its Thursday night preview showings and is poised to pocket more than $100 million in its opening weekend, which would be Marvel's biggest non-May opening film to date, beating April 2014's Captain America: Winter Soldier's $95 million tally.
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In a new report from Variety, Homecoming is also doing extremely well outside North America, specifically in South Korea where it has already had $3.7 million in ticket sales on just on its first date with its three-day showing already nabbing $10.4 million. This is a record-high for a non-holiday Wednesday film opening in the country and a 157% sales increase over Andrew Garfield's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 in 2014.
Elsewhere in the world, the Jon Watts movie is also doing extremely well. In the United Kingdom, it nabbed a $3.4 million in previews followed by a $2 million opening day on Thursday. Russia had a $2.3 million first day while Latin America (as a region) grossed a total of $6.7 million on its first day. Australia, on the other hand, collected $4 million on the film's two-day run. Homecoming's box office record is expected to only get bigger with other film markets like France and Germany scheduled to release the film next week. China, in the meantime, is still waiting for an official launch date.
South Korea has a special affinity for Marvel movies. The East Asian country was even home to a setting for an Avengers battle sequence in 2015's Age of Ultron. Another action set-piece is also said to be set in the country in Black Panther. Further, Seoul is also a favorite press destination in the region for the MCU with Homecoming's Holland and Jacob Batalon (who plays Ned Leeds) even visiting the country last week for some press activities.
Spider-Man: Homecoming is tracking to be a worthy addition to Sony's Spider-Man franchise which has an existing combined gross of $3.1 billion across five films (three from Tobey Maguire's first iteration and two from Garfield's). On top of that, the movie is also a hit in terms of critical reviews with a certified fresh Rotten Tomato rating.
Source: Variety
