Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has moviegoers caught in a web of intrigue like none other for Summer 2023 as a new study shows the Marvel animated tentpole is this year's most anticipated upcoming film.
Popular online movie ticketing service Fandango released the results of its 2023 Moviegoing Trends and Insights Study, polling 6,000 people about their interests and preferences in the film world. In the survey, Fandango asked fans which summer blockbuster they looked forward to seeing the most, with Across the Spider-Verse topping the list. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One and Ezra Miller's The Flash finished second and third, respectively, in the poll, with Transformers: Rise of the Beasts and The Little Mermaid rounding out the top five.
Fandango's latest poll follows an earlier study conducted by the ticketing outlet last December, which saw moviegoers name Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as the film they looked most forward to seeing in 2023. The moviegoer study was conducted between February and March of this year, with 62% of those polled aged between 18 and 54 years, 60% being women and 39% being men. Meanwhile, 65% of respondents identified as Caucasian, with the rest of the respondents identifying as Latinx/Hispanic, Black/African-American, Asian/Pacific Islander and other ethnicities.
A New Spider-Verse Adventure
The excitement and anticipation for Across the Spider-Verse are clear from its early previews, with the film's most recent trailer amassing close to 150 million views within its first 24 hours, making it the second-most viewed Marvel film trailer within a day of its release. The trailer included the introduction of more Spider-People in the multiversal adventure flick including the first official looks at Spider-Punk (Daniel Kaluuya) and Spider-Byte (Ben Reilly), among many others.
Miles Morales (Shamiek Moore) returns as the eponymous crawler as he and Gwen Stacy (Hailee Steinfeld) embark on a new mission to save every universe of Spider-People from The Spot. Miles and Gwen journey through the Multiverse and encounter a group of Spider-People known as the Spider-Society, led by Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). However, Miles soon finds himself at odds with the Spider-Society on how to handle The Spot's threat, leading him to question if he should carry on as Brooklyn's chief protector.
Accompanying Across the Spider-Verse is an upcoming short film created by Sony's Sony's Leading and Empowering New Storytellers (LENS) mentorship program called The Spider Within. The short, which will debut at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival in June, chronicles Miles' anxiety battle as he balances his superhero responsibilities with his life as a normal teenager. Across the Spider-Verse is the long-awaited sequel to 2018's Into the Spider-Verse, which grossed over $384 million on a $90 million budget. Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers and Justin K. Thompson are the co-directors while Phil Lord and Chris Miller co-wrote the screenplay with David Callaham.
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse opens in theaters on June 2.
Source: Fandango