Marvel’s ‘Spider-Man’ ‘obliterated expectations’ at the box office: Analyst

Paul Dergarabedian, a Comscore senior media analyst, joins Yahoo Finance to discuss how Marvel's 'Spider-Man' movie set a pandemic box office record despite Omicron concerns and the outlook for movie theaters in 2022.

Video Transcript

AKIKO FUJITA: Movie theaters are breathing a big sigh of relief after the new Spider-Man movie saw record-breaking attendance in its opening weekend. Despite climbing back from 2020 lows, North American box office, though, still seeing a 62% drop from those highs we saw in 2019. To dive more into these numbers, Let's bring in Comscore Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian. We've also got our very own Allie Canal joining in on the conversation. Paul, you've always said the theaters are going to come back.

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Yep.

AKIKO FUJITA: Is this a sign of things to come, or is this just the popularity of the Spider-Man franchise?

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Yeah, well, I think this was the movie that a lot of people were waiting for. And those who are on the fence about going out to the movie theater, let's face it. If you're a Spider-Man or a Marvel fan, you're not going to sit this one out.

And it was only available in theaters, and it opened massively. I mean, it just obliterated expectations. The film opened with $260 million in North America alone.

That's the second biggest opening of all time behind only "Avengers-- Endgame" that opened with $357 million. And now as of yesterday, "Spider-Man-- No Way Home" has crossed $751 million globally and now has its sights set on the $1 billion mark. There's not been a single film that has opened this year that has gone over a billion in global box office.

- And Paul, "Spider-Man" debuted right before the omicron spread really started to make headlines. So I feel like the timing was right there. But as we've seen surging cases all over the country, how much of a risk factor do you think this variant is as we close out this year and head into 2022? Because some experts have said, look, I don't think the Marvel fans would have stopped and would not have come to see this movie regardless of the headlines--

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Right. Yeah, and that's-- the headwinds that are the omicron variant definitely are there. For a movie like "Spider-Man," that may be a bit of an anomaly because that movie just transcended everything.

Like, it seemed like nobody really cared about any external forces. They just wanted to go see this movie in a theater so they could talk about it with their friends. It's a great movie. I'm sure there was repeat viewing.

For other movies, we're going to have to see how this all plays out, although it seems that even earlier in the year, when Delta hit, "Free Guy" opened and still did really well. So it seems like even though people are certainly aware of these variants with COVID, they know that movie theaters, by and large, have been incredibly protective of their patrons, done a great job of-- I mean, I have never heard of any incident in the movie theater related to COVID.

So if you're safe and, you know, you adhere to those protocols when you go into the theater, I think if the movie really grabs you, if the marketing grabs you, you're still going to go to the movie theater to see it if the movie theater is indeed available and open for business. And I think that's the X factor. What's the effect of omicron going to be moving forward on every brick and mortar business? But this "Spider-Man" result, these numbers, just show that people want to go to the movie theater even if you have tons of content, which you do, at home on streaming.

AKIKO FUJITA: I mean, with that said, we have seen kind of this divide between the big budgets and then all the others. And we're not just talking about the Marvel franchise but even movie theaters. AMC, IMAX, these big chains have the reserves to keep going even as some viewers sort of pull back and rethink going to the theater. What about the independent theaters? How significant a hit have they already taken?

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Yeah.

AKIKO FUJITA: And how many more can actually ride out this latest wave?

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Well, it's tough. You know, for independent theaters for which I have so much respect because they play, you know, the indie films, the films that are more challenging, not just blockbusters, it's been a really rough go since theaters essentially shut down on March 23, 2020. And we don't want to see that segment of the movie theater realm go away. In other words, the independent theaters are so important.

And we found, though, that the more mature audience that gravitates to those kind of specialized movies, they've been more reticent to go back to the movie theater. So I hope independent theaters can hang in there and weather the storm because they are a vital part of movie-going and the kinds of movies that they show to their patrons. And they are the curators of all this great content.

But I'll tell you, this has been really tough. And obviously, there's a fixation on blockbusters by the big theater chains because those are the movies that are going to help bridge the gap for now and in the future to keep the movie theaters running, getting those people coming through the door. So it's very important.

But no question, it's been tough. But a movie like "Licorice Pizza," it's been doing very well, very great per theater averages for that movie. And it goes wide this week. So it's going to be available to many more people. It'll be interesting to see how that movie does once it's available to a broader audience.

ALLIE CANAL: And, Paul, I want to follow up on that point because I have not seen a good, solid romantic comedy in the theaters in quite some time. And I'm not talking about a cheesy Netflix film-- like, the "Sweet Home Alabamas"--

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Right.

ALLIE CANAL: --"How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days." It seems like consumers are gravitating more towards these big budget franchise superhero films. But does that mean those other types of genres are going to die out in the name of ticket sales?

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Well, that's a great point. You do a whole hour on the rom-com and what has happened to it. It's been really difficult to find, you know, those comedies.

But there's so many available on the small screen. I think many people are just gravitating towards the small screen to get their rom-com or comedy fix. And it's been tougher for those movies in theaters, and that was even pre-pandemic.

I think part of the problem was so many of those movies were not that great, to be honest with you. And I think audiences have come to expect a much higher level of quality with movies that, you know, have that comedy element or the rom-com, as we have called them. And so that's definitely a genre that's taken a big hit.

Musicals, also-- "West Side Story" the most recent film to not really grab an audience like we thought it would. Big name with Spielberg, great movie. Hopefully over time, people will come out.

But again, that's a movie that appeals to more mature audiences, and that one's had a rougher go. So I think for now, we're going to be living in a world where you have mainly the big blockbusters, franchise films, superhero films being the bread and butter of the industry. But I hope going forward, this normalizes.

And by the way, we've got about seven movies opening this week, brand new films opening in theaters, including the expansion of "Licorice Pizza." "Sing 2" is out there, some other big movies. So we'll see how the Christmas box office measures up this coming weekend with "Spider-Man" in the mix continuing to, I think, dominate the marketplace.

AKIKO FUJITA: Who knew so many people were looking for a good rom-com? To Allie's point, though--

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Yeah, who knew?

AKIKO FUJITA: --nice with all the negative headlines, we'll take some positive storytelling. We'll see--

PAUL DERGARABEDIAN: Absolutely.

AKIKO FUJITA: Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore Senior Media Analyst, alongside our Allie Canal.