• by Wayne Friedman , January 9, 2022

Young moviegoers are helping “Spider-Man” post another dominating $33 million at the theaters' box office, according to Comscore.

At the same time, new older adult-skewing movies such as the female spy movie “The 355” delivered disappointing results, grabbing just $4.8 million this past weekend in its debut.

A rough analysis suggests “Spider-Man” is benefiting from young versus older moviegoer habits, Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told Media Daily News. “Unless we could conduct a new poll, we may not know for sure, but based on what’s working and what’s not, I think that’s a safe conclusion.”

Dergarabedian adds that “Spider-Man” took almost 50% of the entire weekend’s gross box-office revenue.

In addition to “The 355,” other adult-targeted movies continue to post weaker performances after three weeks of release.

Warner Bros.' “The Matrix Resurrections'' saw $34.3 million, while 20th Century Studios’ “The King’s Man” hit $25.1 million and Lionsgate's “American Underdog” earned $18.7 million. 20th Century Studios’ ''West Side Story,” now in its fifth week of release, is at $32.2 million in total domestic revenue.

“Spider-Man” -- with a $668.8 million total to date -- is now the sixth-highest-grossing U.S. distributed theater movie of all time. Compared more narrowly to other movies over an initial four-week period, the movie is the third-highest-grossing picture of all time.

Universal Pictures’ animated “Sing 2” earned a steady $12 million its third week of release -- second to “Spider-Man” for the weekend, topping $109 million overall in domestic revs.

Over the past two weeks, movie studios have spent a collective $25.9 million in estimated national TV advertising for 8,142 airings -- garnering 2.9 billion impressions, according to iSpot.tv. A year ago, the total was $7.2 million over the same period.

Universal spent more on “The 355” in the last two weeks than any other movie over the period: $6.9 million. So far, the national TV campaign total is at $13.6 million.