'Savages' debuts as 'Amazing Spider-Man' pulls in the money

The Amazing Spider-Man (4,318 theatres) opened on July 3 and quickly earned $58 million here and another $50 million abroad. Through the weekend, the superhero picture should end up with a six-day total of $140-150 million. No wonder Sony wanted to reboot the franchise. The studio's bet has paid off with this film, which has earned positive reviews from critics and thumbs up from fans. FJI critic Frank Lovece declares the Andrew Garfield-Emma Stone pic an "action-packed ride with top-notch acting, great effects and stunt work, and a plot with more holes than a spider web."

The latest 3D concert doc, Katy Perry: Part of Me (2,730 theatres) will provide Perry's signature song-and-costume confections to fans who may not have seen the performer in concert. As critic David Noh reports, the doc also includes Perry's reaction to her floundering marriage and interviews with her evangelist parents. Noh "came away from it with a newfound admiration and respect for this fiercely determined, highly individual, smart and funny young woman." Paramount has modest, teen-million expectations for the project, which was produced on a relatively low budget.

A summer noir with plenty of sizzle, Savages (2,627 theatres) "remains true to the book's hallucinatory mix of stoner navel-gazing and casual brutality," deems Maitland McDonagh, referring to author and co-screenwriter Don Winslow's source material. The story of two drug dealers and their mutual lover, O (Blake Lively) gets a lot of tonal help from the "slacker-savant wordplay" of O's voiceover, which may have viewers reaching for Winslow's novels. I thought the (violent) flick offered plenty of fun, but Universal has set a low bar for the Oliver Stone-directed film, which is expected to earn just over $10 million for the weekend. Though Savages couldn't be more different from Ted (or Magic Mike), there are a lot of R-rated features competing for adult audiences.

On Monday, we'll see if Spider-Man ended up with its nine-figure payday, if audiences turned out for Katy Perry and if Savages sops up more of the R-rated segment of the audience during these hot summer days and nights.