Into the Spider-Verse Tracking For $35M Opening, Mortal Engines Stalling

Sony Animation’s forthcoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is eyeing an impressive box office debut next month according to early estimates, and well ahead of its competition; the Peter Jackson-produced YA dystopian science-fiction feature Mortal Engines, which looks set to flop. Hard.

Both are due to open domestically over the 14th-16th December weekend, and will be in direct competition with one another – though calling it a ‘competition’ is perhaps slightly misleading.

Into the Spider-Verse is set for a $28-$35 million opening, but that already looks set to rise in the coming weeks as the studio pumps up its marketing push. The film will follow the tale of young Miles Morales, the Spider-Man of a parallel universe, who must team up with Peter Parker and a host of other alternate spider-themed heroes to save the multiverse from a dimension-hopping threat of apocalyptic magnitude.

Mortal Engines, meanwhile, is director Christian Rivers adaptation of Philip Reeve’s steampunk science-fiction novel of the same name. It’s only on track to score $12-$18 million, and carrying a budget of $100 million before factoring in marketing. It’ll follow Hester Shaw, a mysterious young women who is the only one left capable of stopping the onslaught of London – now an enormous, mobile predator city that consumes and devours any settlement that crosses its path.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is due for release in UK cinemas on the 12th of December. Mortal Engines will release two days later, on the 14th of December.