Into Lightness: Star Trek Into Darkness aside, here are six sequels that bucked the 'Go darker!' route.

With the first glimpse of Star Trek Into Darkness, most of the discussion centered around how the second Star Trek 2.0 picture seemed to be channeling Chris Nolan's The Dark Knight to an almost embarrassing degree. But to be fair, a trailer is a piece of marketing seemingly separate from the film itself.  And moreover, even if the new Star Trek  does end up going along the lines of 'lone agent of chaos upends the simple morality of Star Trek and makes Kirk/Spock question their ideals while causing destruction and killing off a major character or two', I would argue it's less about overtly ripping off The Dark Knight and more about simply following the sequel playbook.  In short, most sequels go darker, a trend that goes back to at least The Godfather part II.  And most sequels question the somewhat simplistic morality of the first film, as seen in the likes of The Matrix Revolutions and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.  But rather than dissect the sequel template (because I already kinda did that), I'd like to point out a handful of genre sequels that bucked that trend.  In short, these five sequels went the other direction, going in a comparatively lighter direction than their predecessors.  To wit...

The Amazing Spider-Man earns $23.4 million on its second day, bringing two-day total to $59 million.

Well, this is the first (small) sign of trouble.  The Amazing Spider-Man 35% on its second day, earning $23.4 million over July 4th.  It's not a dreadful plunge, and when you remove the $7.5 million worth of midnight screenings on Tuesday, it's closer to a 15% drop.  The film has earned $59.2 million in two days, or exactly what Spider-Man 3 earned on its opening day back in May 2007.  Among the various July 4th openers in recent years, its two-day total puts it ahead of everything save Spider-Man 2 ($64 million), Transformers: Dark of the Moon ($64 million), Transformers ($65 million... also opening on a Tuesday), and Twilight Saga: Eclipse ($92 million, although coming off an insanely front-loaded $30 million at midnight and $68 million over its first 24 hours).  The comparison points should be Spider-Man 2, Transformers 3, and Transformers.  Spider-Man 2 debuted with $40 million on its opening day (Wednesday) but then plunged 41% to $23 million as well.  The difference is that Spidey's second day didn't actually fall on July 4th.  When Transformers debuted on a Tuesday, its Wednesday total actually went up 4% from $27 million to $29 million.  However, when factoring in those pesky Monday-night sneaks (first 1.25 days = $36 million), then Transformers technically dropped 19%.  Without even looking at the whole 3D/IMAX ticket-price bump issue, the adjusted-for-inflation two-day totals for Spider-Man 2 ($81 million) and Transformers ($75 million) are well-above The Amazing Spider-Man's figures. On the plus side, it's been playing identical to Transformers: Dark of the Moon, minus only the $5.5 million worth of 9pm showings that film had prior to the midnight screenings. Two days in, it still looks like The Amazing Spider-Man will end its six day weekend with between $140 million and $165 million.

Scott Mendelson

Midnight box office: The Amazing Spider-Man earns $7.5m at 12:01am. Will it fall closer to $112m or $155m by Sunday?

The official numbers are in, and The Amazing Spider-Man is off to a decent if-not amazing start.  The reboot earned $7.5 million in midnight screenings.  $1.2 million of that came from IMAX alone, giving each IMAX theater a $4,000 per-screen average.  For comparison sake, Spider-Man 3 debuted with $10 million worth* of midnight showings five summers ago.  While said threequel debuted on a Friday as opposed to Tuesday, it also was in the middle of the school year and didn't have the benefit of 3D ticket prices and expanded IMAX opportunities.  To be fair, there wasn't nearly as much 'rush out and see it' factor this time around, as it wasn't a sequel to a popular series and didn't have the debut of a fan-favorite villain (Venom, natch).  As it is, $7.5 million is the same midnight number that Iron Man 2 pulled in two years ago on its way to a $128 million Fri-Sun total.  But it's difficult/unfair to compare Fri-Sun openings with extended week openings, so let's look at more relevant stats.

Avengers box office: $18.9m on Monday, for a $226m four-day US total. Oh, and $700m worldwide thus far.

There is little doubt that The Avengers will join the $1 billion mark at the global box office, the only question being whether it will do so this weekend or next weekend.  With $700 million in the global can in 13 days, the film is the second-fastest grossing blockbuster of all-time so far (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II earned $700 million in ten days of global release and $800 million in 12 days).  It's way too soon to start tossing off comparisons invoking James Cameron, although I'd argue that a final global tally above Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II ($1.3 billion) is a sure thing at this point.  So for the moment, let's concentrate on the domestic front.  After a stunning $207 million over its first three days, The Avengers grossed $18.9 million on Monday.  That brings the film to a four-day total of $226 million, which is not only the highest four-day tally of all-time but exceeds the record six-day $224 million gross of The Dark Knight four years ago.  The film has the eighth-biggest Monday gross of all-time (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II earned $18.1 million on its first Monday, natch).  The higher numbers were Spider-Man 2 ($27 million), Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull ($26 million), Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End ($25 million), The Dark Knight ($24 million), Shrek 2 ($23 million), X-Men: The Last Stand ($20 million), and Avatar ($19 million). Most of the other films higher on the list had first or (in the case of Avatar and Shrek 2) second Mondays that were part of a holiday weekend, be it Memorial Day, Independence Day, or the Christmas/New Year portion where everyone is off of school.  Among Mondays where nobody gets off school or work, it *is* the biggest Monday gross of all-time. Among non-holiday Mondays, The Dark Knight had a better fourth day of $24 million, but that was in the middle of the summer.  But what this does mean is that The Avengers may have to settle for a $270-275 million full-week total (horrors, I know) as opposed to the pie-in-the-sky $300 million Friday-to-Thursday gross had it pulled in Dark Knight-level weekday grosses.  That's all for now.

Scott Mendelson