197 
AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc (AMC.N) said on Friday nearly 1.1 million people watched “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in its theaters in the United States, a record opening for a movie across the company’s theaters in December.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home”, produced by Sony Corp’s (6758.T) movie studio and Walt Disney Co (DIS.N), stars Tom Holland as Marvel’s web-slinging superhero and Zendaya as his girlfriend, MJ.
The movie has already won glowing reviews from film critics, with box office analysts predicting the superhero action spectacle would set pandemic-era sales records at cinemas this weekend. As of Friday afternoon, “No Way Home” had earned a 95 per cent positive score from 207 reviews collected on the Rotten Tomatoes website.
“This was the single highest number of people watching one movie on one day at AMC’s US theaters during all of calendar years 2020 and 2021,” the world’s largest cinema chain said.
Similarly, Cinemark Holdings Inc(CNK.N)said the “Spider-Man” movie delivered the theater operator’s best US box office opening night of all time.
After a year of closures and restrictions due to the global health crisis, the gaining momentum of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the United States seems to have had little impact on the latest Marvel release.
Earlier this month, London-based ODEON Cinemas, owned by AMC, said the tickets sales for the movie was three times that of recently released “James Bond – No Time to Die”.
The new “Spider-Man” movie was also the second-highest grossing movie title on its opening night of all-time, falling just short of “Avengers: Endgame”, which opened in 2019, AMC added.
REUTERS
