• by Wayne Friedman , June 5, 2023

Another big summer film franchise in the form of "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" opened the first weekend of June with a dominating $120.5 million box office -- making it Sony Pictures' best animated domestic opening ever, according to Comscore.

The movie made another $88.1 million internationally.

Sony did all this with modest national TV advertising spend of $11.4 million -- from 4,280 airings, getting 2.6 billion impressions, according to EDO Ad EnGage.

This version of “Spider-Man” witnessed lots of those airings on many kids and animated TV networks, with Disney XD getting 500 airings for the length of the campaign; Cartoon Network (470); Disney Channel (430); Teen Nick (217); Nickelodeon (200); and Adult Swim (196).

Second place this weekend went to Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” -- now in its second week, adding another $40.6 million domestically to total $326.7 million globally.

On the horizon for other big expected movies areParamount Pictures: “Transformers: Rise of the Beasts” with a $14.6 million estimated national TV spend, opening next weekend; Warner Bros. “The Flash” with an estimated spend of $20.3 million (opening June 16); Walt Disney’ “Elemental” with an estimated spend of $10.4 million, also June 16); and Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” with an estimated spend at $8.23 million currently, opening June 30.