Spider-Man: No Way Home has swung back on top of the box office during a holiday weekend where American theaters 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 theaters, including major chains AMC and Regal Cinemas—collected preliminary box office returns of $24.3 million, according the Comscore. Labor Day weekend usually is one of the industry's slowest weekends of the year, per the AP.
The promotion was intended not just to bring people in this weekend but to entice them to return in the fall, after being shown a sizzle reel of upcoming films from major studios. "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. 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. Organizers of the National Cinema Day said the event could become an annual one. The top three performing titles for the day were Top Gun: Maverick, DC League of Super Pets and Bullet Train. Another top draw was Spider-Man: No Way Home, which recaptured the No. 1 box office spot for the weekend and included never-seen footage in its rerelease.
Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home, $6 million.
- Top Gun: Maverick, $5.5 million.
- DC League of Super Pets, $5.45 million.
- Bullet Train, $5.4 million.
- The Invitation, $4.7 million.
- Beast, $3.6 million.
- Minions: The Rise of Gru, $3.1 million.
- Thor: Love and Thunder, $2.4 million.
- Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, $2.4 million.
- Jaws (1975), $2.3 million.
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