Weekend box office: Spider-Man’s web of winning

The Marvel hero keeps surprising industry experts, first with glowing reviews, and now with a blockbuster box office opening weekend.

Spidey’s spinning a web of big wins, first critically and now box office-wise. Variety reports that as of Sunday morning, Spider-Man: Homecoming, which cost about $175 million to make, had reeled in about $117 million in theaters. It’s a promising development for a movie that didn’t come to theaters with especially high expectations from critics or industry pros.

First, the world was taken aback by unexpectedly warm reviews (both from critics and us peasants in the audience—the movie’s currently sitting pretty with a 93 percent Rotten Tomatoes score).

And now, tickets are selling when people predicted the movie-going public was sick of Spider-Man (we probably should be, he’s had three different actors play him in a decade and a half). The studio was expecting an opening somewhere in the neighborhood of $80 million.

It likely helped that the producers and cast had some fun with this movie. Aside from making Peter a particularly relatable teen (some critics have made John Hughes movie comparisons), they also got creative with their villain’s arc and particularly Easter eggy cameos, and fans are digging it. Of course, not every choice was well-received (how dumb do you think we are, Marvel?), but overall, the web-slinger is having a good week.

Variety also cited the movie’s social media dominance as evidence of Spider-Man’s success. For weeks, Spider-Man: Homecoming has generated the most conversation on social media platforms, according to tracking firm ComScore.

Other movies hanging with Peter Parker and co. at the top of the box office?

–Despicable Me 3 at $34 million second weekend or $149.1 million total

–Baby Driver at $12.75 million second weekend or $56.9 million total

–Wonder Woman at $10.1 million sixth weekend or $368.8 million total

–Transformers: The Last Knight at $6.3 million third weekend or $118.9 million total

Next: Spider-Man: Homecoming had an interesting take on the Vulture

With these kinds of first weekend stats, we’re guessing Spider-Man will be sticking around a while (Get it? Because his web is sticky?). And we’re all about it.