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David Mumpower: The comments thus far run the gamut of what Internet opinion appears to be on the subject. The subject is truly divisive, and a lot of people feel the same way as Felix about comparing the title to the previous version of Spider-Man. Personally, I think that such comparisons as unavoidable. The instant Sony determined not to make Spider-Man 4 and reboot a decade old franchise, they introduced that line of thinking. People compare Batmans (Batmen?) and Supermans (Supermen?) so they are going to do the same with Peter Parker.

The problem faced with The Amazing Spider-Man was that consumers were annoyed that such a young story was being told once again. Even worse, that movie basically took the origin story from the first film and combined it with the demented mentor from the second film, the best of the series. It was derivative in every manner possible, and it was also not well liked. The fourth Spidey film was tolerated more than anything else.

Given the fact that another sequel was rushed into theaters in order to capitalize on the popularity of comic book releases right now, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 was financially necessary for Sony yet superfluous to customers. For that reason, I believe that this opening weekend borders on a best case scenario result. It effectively matched Captain America: The Winter Soldier, a project that was an Avengers spin-off as well as a sequel to a much better received movie. It also had the Disney marketing arm behind it, and that inflates children's ticket sales a great deal. If I am a Sony executive looking at these numbers, I am alarmed by the unmistakable downward turn of the domestic box office but I am also relieved that disaster was averted. In my estimation, there was a much larger chance that this movie bombed rather than opened to $90 million. Sony's Spider-Man franchise has lived to fight another day, which was the realistic best case scenario.

Kim Hollis: I think this is an expected result. Anything much less would have been disappointing; more would have been surprising. Ever since Spider-Man 3, North American audiences have been steadily losing interest in this character, and I think it’s because there’s some limitation in the stories that can be told (though you can say that about most superhero tales to some degree). Unfortunately for Sony, he’s a lesser Marvel character at the moment. If he could have been pulled into the Avengers’ fold, we’d be looking at an entirely different story here. As it is, this is an okay performance but with word-of-mouth both from critics and audiences being poor, it’s going to struggle from here domestically. International revenues will be Sony’s saving grace and a reason to justify continuing the series so they can hold on to the character rights.

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