‘Spider-Man’ stays at No. 1 in 4th weekend

Spider-Man’s box office dominance continued in its fourth weekend in theaters, adding another $33 million, according to studio estimates on Sunday. With $668.8 million in North American ticket sales to date, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is now the sixth highest grossing release of all time domestically. Globally, with $1.5 billion and counting, it ranks in eighth place.

The only major new film this weekend was Universal’s “The 355,” an original spy thriller starring Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger and Penelope Cruz, which debuted in third place with $4.8 million from 3,145 North American theaters. Directed by Simon Kingberg, reviews for the film about a global coalition of female spies have been less than stellar: It holds a 27% on Rotten Tomatoes.

But the audience scores have been more enthusiastic, especially from women, and about a third of the attendees this weekend were over 45 — a demographic that has not gone out to movie theaters much during the pandemic. With a holiday weekend coming up, Jim Orr, Universal’s head of domestic distribution, said, “We think we’ll have a nice runway.”

“The 355” came in behind the animated “Sing 2,” also distributed by Universal, which grossed an estimated $12 million in its third weekend in theaters, bringing its global total to $190.8 million.