‘Amazing Spider-Man 2′ Swinging Strong In International Debut As It Casts Global Web

Nancy Tartaglione contributed to this report.

There’s absolutely no arachnophobia in international markets for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Sony Pictures Entertainment’s latest film in its mega-franchise opened in 15 territories — including across Europe in the U.K. Spain, Germany and Belgium and in other top markets of Mexico and Australia — and numbers are just now rolling in … and they are very strong and off to a great start.

In four markets — the U.K., Germany, Australia and Belgium — the movie already has logged the biggest opening days of the year. In the U.K., Spidey grossed $2.73M, which is not surprising since it’s a top school holiday and kids are flooding into the market now. Back in 2012, The Amazing Spider-Man made $40.3M in the U.K. all in, so this is one of the most important markets for the studio. The film grabbed $1.44M Down Under in Australia, a big $1.3M in Germany and in Belgium $190K for its opening day. Other markets where Spidey opened are Austria, Denmark, Israel, New Zealand, Portugal, Switzerland, Uraguay, Bulgaria, and Sweden.

The tentpole, starring Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone, bows in the U.S. on May 2 and will open in China two days later. Sony has made sure that the entire ASM2 team has been on full-court promotional tours in the press around the world, including China, which was the No. 1 overseas market for the first Amazing Spider-Man with $48.4M there in 2012. The total international gross in 2012 was $490.1M.

ASM2’s production budget is said to be around $255M, with about $180M to $190M spent on marketing. With that said, the success of its global web of grosses from international territories are crucial. With so much riding on this one picture – the outlay investment is so high – Spider-Man 2 is the kind of picture that needs to do higher than the first, which made $752.2M worldwide and about 65% of its gross coming from international markets. At the $750M mark, Sony stands to make about 20% return on the movie so they will not lose money but not considered a big success. What would be considered successful is a worldwide gross in the $850M to $900M range. And above that number is where they ideally would like to be all in … and who wouldn’t, right? So between the domestic and international markets, those are the numbers they gotta pull off.

The four previous Spider-Man movies have done extremely well outside of the domestic market — in fact, they have all grossed in excess of $400M and all have worldwide grosses of over $750M. But, again, this one needs to pull in more and sequels usually do. So, Sony execs will be on the edge of their seats watching this film roll out. Interesting that symptoms of arachnophobia are anxiety, panic attacks, screaming, crying, trouble breathing and sweating — sounds like most studios executives as they watch their grosses roll in … or not.

The first Amazing Spider-Man which bowed the Fourth of July weekend two years ago, cashed in with $262M in North America. The question is what this sequel will do domestically. The one thing it has going for it is that it is bowing on May 2 and the next big tentpole — Godzilla from Warner Bros. — doesn’t come out until May 16.

Here are the Top International markets for the first Amazing Spider-Man in 2012:

1. China $48.8M

2. UK/Ireland $40.3M

3. Japan $38.9M

4. Korea $35.8M

5. Brazil $29.8M

6. Mexico $28.6M

7. Russia $22.1M

8. France $20.1M

9. Germany $18.4M

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