10 Jul – Reboots always faced the pressure of needing to perform better than its predecessors, as audiences are already well-versed or at least, comfortably used to an existing version of the story, and may not want to pay an admission ticket's worth to watch a rehash, different take or not. While Marc Webb's "The Amazing Spider-Man" managed to top box offices in the U.S. with US$137 million in the weekend of 5 July to 8 July, its earnings did not quite measure up to its predecessors' box office numbers, according to Box Office Mojo. Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" reached US$144.2 million during the first six days of its release back in 2002, which was exactly a decade ago, while "Spider-Man 2" and "Spider-Man 3" grossed US$180.1 million and US$176.2 million, respectively. Last week's top box office film "Ted" got pushed down to second, but is on its way towards achieving US$200 million, which is not too bad for director Seth McFarlane's directional feature debut. Pixar's "Brave" rounds out the top three, and helped Disney become the first studio to pass $1 billion at the domestic box office.
This week, "The Amazing Spider-Man" successfully kicked American president "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" off his seat at the top of Malaysia's box office and out of the top three entirely. Second place was given to Ahmad Idham's 18-rated thriller "8 Jam" which stars Shaheizy Sam as a man who only has eight hours to prove his innocence after being accused of a murder, while the new adventures of Sid, Manny and Diego sailed to third with "Ice Age 4: Continental Drift". In this outing, the trio is left stranded on a piece of ice and battling primordial pirates to find a new home when Scrat's notorious acorn pursuits cause continental cracks.
In Singapore, "The Amazing Spider-Man" maintained its top position for the second week running, but is closely stalked by "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter" in second place, which just made its debut in the country. Meanwhile, building on the hype of a critically praised film, Wu'ershan's sequel to Gordon Chan's action fantasy and romance film, "Painted Skin: The Resurrection", fared a third place opening. Other new movies that opened in Malaysia last week are "Bol Bachchan", "Naan Ee" and "Ice Age 4: Continental Drift".
For Singapore, other new movies that opened are "Stricken" and "Bol Bachchan".