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Where does The Amazing Spider-Man 2 go from here? This topic is subjective, as ardent fans of Spidey wear rose-colored glasses on the subject. The people who are not in love with the character, well, their spidey senses are tingling. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is only 54% fresh at Rotten Tomatoes; the grim news is that it's only 37% fresh amongst Top Critics. Its Cinemascore grade was only a B+, and while a B+ is a decent grade on your report card, it is not the score a $200 million production needs to survive in the marketplace. To wit, The Amazing Spider-Man received an A- Cinemascore, yet it grossed only $125 million after opening weekend. I would note that this number is artificially deflated by its release during the week of July 4th, so it is not quite as bad as it sounds on the surface. Spider-Man 3, unquestionably the least popular of the Spider-Man movies to date, received... a B+. I'm not suggesting you should read a lot into that analogy, because Spider-Man 3 still managed a 2.2 final multiplier after its record-shattering weekend of $151.1 million. Unfortunately, if The Amazing Spider-Man 2 achieves the same ratio, it barely crosses the $200 million mark. To date, no Spider-Man movie has earned less than $262 million domestically. In order to demonstrate its viability in the early summer marketplace, The Amazing Spider-Man 2 will have to behave like a family film, similar to what Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier has done thus far. If not, the only number Sony will ever acknowledge about the fifth Spider-Man movie is its global take.

The Other Woman is way back in second place, as Spidey’s web proved too much even for counter-programming to take hold. The poorly reviewed revenge comedy featuring Cameron Diaz, Leslie Mann and Kate Upton earned $14.2 million this weekend, a hefty decline of 43%. Since it is the primary choice for the female demographic, it may see a bit of a recovery next weekend, but even if it does not, The Other Woman has already proven to be a solid success for the folks at Fox. It has earned $47.3 million in 10 days, already surpassing its budget. By the time it leaves theaters, it will easily have covered its marketing and print costs, and that’s not even taking into consideration that it has already earned $20 million overseas. Even if the quality of the film might be lacking, the success of The Other Woman should remind studios that this audience is hungry for product.

Third place goes to Heaven Is for Real, the most recent faith-based release to see success in 2014. Now in its third weekend, the TriStar film declined 39% to $8.7 million, thereby bringing its domestic total to $65.6 million. This amount is well in excess of the film’s $12 million budget, and ensures that this quickly growing genre will continue to be a big story in 2014. Depending on how you see Noah, Heaven Is for Real is either the third or fourth faith-based movie in just four months, and another one is coming as soon as next weekend.

Finishing in fourth place this weekend is the film that set the table for Spider-Man, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. The satisfying Marvel blockbuster imbued customers with confidence that comic book movies are worth the cost of a ticket, which paid dividends for a non-Disney distributor releasing a title starring a Disney-owned character. Even as this transpired, plenty of people continued to support the de facto leader of The Avengers as Cappy’s fifth weekend still managed $7.8 million, still good enough for fourth place. It was down 52% from last frame, so it is starting to lose a bit of steam. After exactly one month in release, The Winter Soldier has grossed $237.1 million domestically. It is roughly $16 million behind The Lego Movie, the number one North American title of 2014 to date. Worldwide, the referee has stopped the bout as The Lego Movie has managed “only” $455 million in total. The Winter Soldier has grossed $443 million in overseas revenue alone. Its global take of $680 million makes it the 29th largest global performer of the last five years.

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