Having been released on Tuesday, Spider-Man: Far From Home has had a longer than usual "weekend" on which to make its debut. That extra three days has helped it thwip its way to a massive, $185m at the US box office, and almost $600m worldwide: a result significantly to the north of most industry predictions. It's the second-best ever Independence Day weekend tally: below only Transformers: Dark Of The Moon and bumping previous second placer Spider-Man 2 down to third. So much for post-Endgame audience superhero fatigue.
Following a dismal June where several tentpole franchise sequels – Men In Black International, Dark Phoenix, even Toy Story 4 – were considered to have underperformed, it's a result that has the pundits feeling cautiously optimistic again. The Lion King and Hobbs & Shaw may yet save 2019's blockbuster season...
Looking at the figures for the actual three days of the July 4 weekend, Spidey is still comfortably at the top on just shy of $94m, with the aforementioned Toy Story fourquel in second place with $34m (currently sitting on a worldwide total of $650m). Danny Boyle's Beatles what-if comedy Yesterday was third at $11m; Conjuring spin-off Annabelle Comes Home was fourth with $10m; and Aladdin is still romping along in fifth, adding a further $7.6m to its $922m worldwide gross.
The US Top 10 is completed by Midsommar ($6.5m), The Secret Life Of Pets 2 ($4.7m), Men In Black International ($3,6m), Avengers: Endgame ($3.1m) and Rocketman ($2.8m). Two horror movies in a US summer Top 10? Strange days indeed...