The more interesting story to me is down at number 7. Seems everyone has forgotten poor Spider-Man already. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 so far has made about $192 million. It will barely make $200 million - if it makes it there at all. For a Spider-Man movie, that's pretty poor. That may not even cover the production budget, to say nothing of marketing.
Now granted, nobody's going to the poor house. Worldwide, this Spidey has grossed $690 million. So, as was the case with the last Pirates of the Caribbean movie, even though domestic went meh, worldwide grosses ensure a follow-up at some point.
That said, I still think the series deserves a major-rethink. The grosses for each successive Spider-Man movie have tailed off considerably. My perception is, Sony rebooted too soon and people didn't fall in love with the new gang. Leads Andrew Garfield and Emma Stone are appealing, but the movies that surrounded them are not so much.
What to do? First, they need to ditch director Marc Webb. He just doesn't have the chops to pull off a big franchise. Let him go back to making smaller fare like (500) Days of Summer, and have someone else with more pizzazz come in. I'm not sure who that should be. Josh Trank, who helmed the lower-key and clever Chronicle might be good once he gets done with his Fantastic Four reboot.
Second, and more importantly, they need to drop the bloat. No more than two villains at a time, please. And this idea of a Sinister Six movie? Drop it. If Sony cant't sell the hero who once had a decent track record, how can they expect to sell villains with none?
