Why’d it bomb? The Amazing Spider Man 2 (2014)
https://lebeauleblog.com/2017/04/19/whyd-it-bomb-the-amazing-spider-man-2-2014/
Posted by kevthewriter
Last summer, Spider-Man made his debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (or MCU for short). This summer, the web-slinger will be headlining his own movie. But before his “homecoming”, Spidey was the star of two of Sony’s franchises. First, Sam Raimi a trilogy starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst. Then Marc Webb rebooted the series in 2012 with Andrew Garfield taking over the mantle. In both cases, the franchise’s started off well but then, through executive meddling, things didn’t go so well.
Then came The Amazing Spider Man 2, which had the lowest grossing domestic gross of any Spider Man film, grossing $202 million domestically. That being said, it was technically a hit at the box office, making $709 million worldwide. However, while that wasn’t much different from the first movie’s worldwide gross of $757 million, Sony was expecting the movie to make more money and, when it didn’t, they ended up firing Garfield (though the fact that he had a falling out with the head of Sony didn’t help matters either), they cancelled their plans for an Amazing Spider-Man franchise, and decided to reboot the whole thing all over again. But why wasn’t it the huge hit Sony was hoping for? Let’s find out!
3. Neighbors, of all movies, ended up being worthy competition
Neighbors was released the second week after ASM opened and, amazingly enough, it actually dethroned The Amazing Spider Man 2 after its second week. I guess the teens-twentysomething’s who might’ve been interested in both got their fix after the first weekend so, once Neighbors came out, they abandoned the movie in droves and went to see Neighbors instead. Granted, Neighbors did not make nearly as much as ASM 2 altogether but, still, the fact that it actually dethroned it at the top spot at the box office in it’s 2nd week does say something!
2. The movie drove away many of the people who disliked The Amazing Spider-Man
Considering the first Amazing Spider-Man was already a bit divisive, many people who hated the first Webb film probably didn’t want to see a sequel. As a result, they stayed away and the movie ended up making less as a result. In addition, it also probably drove away many of the fans who didn’t like the franchise in the first place because they wanted Spidey to be with the MCU, as they decided it was another movie they weren’t going to see.
1. Franchise Fatigue
Probably the biggest reason the movie didn’t meet expectations is that there were just too many Spider-Man films and people wanted a break from the character. After all, The Amazing Spider-Man came out only 5 years after Spider-Man 3 and The Amazing Spider-Man 2 came out just 2 years after The Amazing Spider-Man 1. With all those movies coming so close together, people probably just got tired of the whole thing and it caused more people to stay away.
Weirdly enough, though, there is a lot of hype for the next Spider-Man reboot, though that definitely has to do with the fact that it is connected with the MCU. Otherwise, Sony’s first attempt at rebooting Spider-Man just didn’t work out and we’ll have to hope this new reboot works out for the best!