Spidey tops box office while Cinema Day draws millions

By Jonathan Landrum Jr.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has swung back on top of the box office during a holiday weekend where American theaters aimed to lure moviegoers with discounted $3 tickets.

The first “National Cinema Day” nationwide promotion became the highest-attended day of the year, drawing an estimated 8.1 million moviegoers on Saturday, according to The Cinema Foundation. The one-day event – offered on more than 30,000 screens and held in more than 3,000 theaters, including major chains AMC and Regal Cinemas – collected preliminary box office returns of $24.3 million, according to data firm Comscore.

National Cinema Day was intended to flood theaters with moviegoers during a Labor Day weekend, which is traditionally one of the slowest weekends in the industry. The promotion looked to prompt people to return in the fall, inspired by a sizzle reel of the upcoming films from major studios including Disney, Lionsgate, Sony and A24.

“This event outstripped our biggest expectations,” said Jackie Brenneman, president of the Cinema Foundation, a nonprofit arm of the National Association of Theater Owners, in a statement. “The idea of the day was to thank moviegoers for an amazing summer, and now we have to thank them for an amazing day.”

For more U.S. news, click here.