Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse Swings Past $600 Million At The Box Office

In a year where superhero movies have shown that they are no longer guaranteed any level of success at the box office, "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" continues to do extremely well for itself. The animated sequel to 2018's "Into the Spider-Verse" has been chugging right along for over a month now and, in its fifth weekend, stayed in the number two spot on the charts, pulling in another $12 million, per The Numbers. And with that, the film has crossed a pretty significant milestone.

With $340.3 million in domestic ticket sales and $267.4 million from international audiences, Sony's latest has crossed the $600 million mark worldwide, with $607.7 million to its name (and counting). What remains remarkable is just how much more money this movie is going to make than its predecessor. "Into the Spider-Verse" was a near-universally loved movie that went on to win Best Animated Feature at the Oscars, taking in $375.5 million worldwide against a $90 million budget. The follow-up carries a higher budget, in the $100 million range, but has now made around 61% more than the original. That's spectacular.

What's most incredible is that "Across the Spider-Verse" is doing this in the face of incredibly stiff competition. In the weeks since the film originally hit theaters, "Elemental," "The Flash," "Transformers: Rise of the Beasts," and "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" have all debuted. Granted, most of those films have disappointed on some level, but that's still a lot of heavy hitters to go up against.

As mentioned earlier, superhero movies have demonstrated that they are no longer bulletproof at the box office this year. "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ($476 million worldwide/$200 million budget), "The Flash" ($245.3 million so far/$200 million budget), and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" ($133.7 million worldwide/$125 million budget) have all failed pretty spectacularly against expectations. In particular, DC is struggling mightily with "Blue Beetle" and "Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom" now facing the burden of outsized expectations to make up for recent failures. It's ugly. "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is the only other unqualified success story, and that represents the end of a trilogy, meaning there's no more gas left in that particular tank.

That being the case, what "Across the Spider-Verse" has managed to do is all the more impressive. The movie, once again, was met with widespread praise from fans and critics alike (read our review here). And to then parlay that good buzz into such wild success at the box office is nothing shy of remarkable. It sets up "Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse" for what could be an even bigger run, as this could be an "Avengers: Infinity War" ($2 billion worldwide) and "Avengers: Endgame" ($2.79 billion) situation. Audiences are going to want that cliffhanger resolved.

Given where we stand, it's likely that "Across the Spider-Verse" will finish its run closer to $700 million worldwide, which is truly a victory lap situation for all involved. In a year where many franchise films have disappointed, this is a win that defied even the most optimistic expectations.