SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING, Sony Corp.’s second reboot of the Marvel superhero series, led the North American box office as expected in its weekend debut, marking the first No. 1 opening for the studio this year.

The film, part of a production deal with Walt Disney Co.’s Marvel unit, garnered an estimated $117 million in sales in US and Canadian theaters, researcher ComScore, Inc. said Sunday in an e-mail. The picture scored the second-biggest debut in the Spider-Man series and was Sony’s second-largest opening ever, according to researcher Box Office Mojo.

Homecoming, co-produced by Marvel Entertainment president Kevin Feige, gives Sony Pictures a much-needed hit after a string of disappointments. The Culver City, California-based studio has languished in seventh place this year in domestic box-office receipts — a lowly spot the studio hasn’t occupied since 2000 — in part because it lacks big titles to compete with Disney and Warner Bros.

“It’s as important as any film they have released in the past 10 years,” said Jeff Bock, senior box-office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co. about Spider-Man: Homecoming. “It is the last major franchise they have.”

After starting 2017 with a $1-billion write-off and the departure of Michael Lynton, who led the Tokyo-based company’s US film, TV and music businesses, Sony’s entertainment unit needs to start making hit films again. Last year’s Ghostbusters revival failed and was followed by disappointments including the star-studded Passengers. Rothman, 62, came in more than two years ago after a hacking scandal toppled former studio chief Amy Pascal.

Kazuo Hirai, chief executive officer of the Tokyo-based parent company, has shaken up management, appointing new executives to lead Sony Entertainment and the film division. The studio has several more movies related to Spider-Man in the works.

Homecoming marks Sony’s third series with the Marvel character. Tobey Maguire starred as the webslinger in three films starting in 2002. Andrew Garfield took over the role in 2012 with limited success. His last movie, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, didn’t rate well with critics and generated the lowest sales of all the films. It also cost $265 million to make.

In Homecoming, 21-year-old Tom Holland takes on the role of the mutant high-schooler. His first appearance in last year’s Disney Marvel movie Captain America: Civil War sparked excitement for the full-length feature from Sony. That film tied Spider-Man into a storyline that has been rolled out over several of Disney’s Marvel pictures.

Robert Downey, Jr. reprises his popular take on Tony Stark/Iron Man, who has recruited Peter Parker/Spider-Man as a supposed intern. Instead of focusing on his school projects and friends, Parker tracks down a group of thieves led by the villain Vulture, played by Michael Keaton, and gets in over his head.

Critics liked the new movie, giving it 94% positive reviews, according to aggregator RottenTomatoes.com.

Sony was predicting an $80-million North American debut for Spider-Man: Homecoming, which was the week’s only new film in wide release. Analysts such as BoxOfficePro.com projected a three-day haul of $122 million, while Hollywood Stock Exchange forecast $117.9 million. Box Office Mojo had the lowest estimate at $110 million.

MARVEL’S ROLE
For this go-round, Sony turned to Walt Disney Co., recruiting the president of its successful Marvel division, Kevin Feige, as a producer. The company agreed to weave Spider-Man into a larger Marvel storyline featuring many superheroes, while Disney won rights to use the character in movies of its own. Disney retained merchandising rights and could benefit from toy sales linked to the movie.

And costs have come down: the budget for the new film was $175 million, according to Sony.

“It was very much run like a Marvel Studios production,” Feige told reporters in April.

Its success would put future Sony superhero films on firmer ground. These include a 2018 release based on the character Venom, featuring Tom Hardy, along with an animated Spider-Man. The studio also plans a feature with female leads based on Black Cat and Silver Sable. As part of the deal with Disney, Feige will produce a Spider-Man sequel due out in 2019. Pascal, a producer on Spider-Man: Homecoming, will be part of that effort, too.

The new Spider-Man continues a story introduced in last year’s Disney movie Captain America: Civil War, which brought in $1.15 billion in worldwide. It will extend through next year’s Infinity Wars and possibly another Avengers movie.

SONY’S SLATE
While stuck in seventh place, Sony has had a modest success this year with the heist movie Baby Driver and could have a hit with the The Emoji Movie, due July 28. The first of a new series of Stephen King adaptations, featuring Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey in the Dark Tower, is scheduled for next month. Other remakes are also on the horizon, such as Flatliners and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.

And the studio is contending for future rights to the James Bond movie series. Sony generated $3.17 billion in worldwide box-office sales with the previous four spy films, going back to 2006’s Casino Royale.

With parent Sony Corp.’s diverse businesses spanning electronics and video games, as well an entertainment, a single movie won’t make or break the company. But “they really need a win here,” said Paul Sweeney, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst.

To compete in the global film market, Sony will “have to have a recurring number of tentpole franchises that you can bring out every year,” Sweeney said. “Two or three bankable franchises that you can go back to every couple years and you try to get lucky with some of the other ones.” — Bloomberg

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR