‘Spider-Man’ stays aloft to lead box office on slow weekend

LOS ANGELES — With moviegoing slowed by the COVID-19 surge, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” easily clung to its box-office lead in North American theatres this weekend, industry data showed on Sunday.

The Sony/Marvel superhero film, with Tom Holland as the popular web-slinger, took in an estimated $11 million for the Friday-through-Sunday period, industry watcher Exhibitor Relations reported. The movie has now led the domestic box office in six of its seven weekends out.

Its domestic total of $735.9 million places it fourth all-time, trailing “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” at $936.7 million, “Avengers: Endgame” at $858.4 million and — possibly now within its reach — “Avatar” at $760.5 million, according to Box Office Mojo, a division of the Internet Movie Database.

On a quiet weekend when pandemic-stung studios opted to issue no new wide releases, Paramount’s latest chapter in the “Scream” franchise again took second place, grossing $7.4 million. As in the horror flick’s 1996 original, Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette again star.

Third spot was also unchanged, with Universal’s animated musical “Sing 2” taking in $4.8 million. Its all-star voice cast includes Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Matthew McConaughey, Pharrell Williams and Bono.

Hanging steady in fourth was Universal’s Christian romance film “Redeeming Love”, at $1.9 million. It offers a parable of sin and salvation in an Old West setting: California’s 1849 Gold Rush.

And “The King’s Man”, the spy action comedy from 20th Century, again made the top five, taking in $1.8 million. Ralph Fiennes, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans and Matthew Goode star.

Rounding out the top 10 were “The 355” ($1.4 million), “American Underdog” ($1.2 million), “Ghostbusters: Afterlife” ($770,000), “Licorice Pizza” ($691,000) and “West Side Story” ($614,000).