5 TV Shows That Played in Movie Theaters (& Made Bank)

It was recently announced that Crave’s smash-hit LGBTQ+ hockey romance series Heated Rivalry will be playing in U.S. theaters throughout November in three two-episode packages. While this might seem like an unusual move (because it is), it’s not unprecedented. This isn’t the first time that a small screen title has broken through to the big screen through sheer popularity.

While it remains to be seen if this will be your typical quiet boutique release or if it will rake in the big bucks, these five previous television projects that played in theaters have proven the viability of this type of release strategy by pulling in solid numbers in theaters.

The Amazing Spider-Man

No, not the Andrew Garfield movie. Long before Garfield, Tom Holland, or even Tobey Maguire stepped into the role of Spider-Man, the iconic Marvel comic book character first appeared on the big screen thanks to the 1977 television show The Amazing Spider-Man, which starred Nicholas Hammond (Friedrich von Trapp from The Sound of Music) in the title role as the web-slinging superhero.

The TV movie pilot for the series premiered in overseas theaters in 1977 under the title Spider-Man and ended up grossing $9 million. That’s $49 million when adjusted for inflation, which is more than the worldwide grosses of the 2026 movies Return to Silent Hill ($47.5 million), Young Washington ($47.1 million), Hope ($46.8 million), and Greenland 2: Migration ($45.2 million). It was such a success that other specials from the two-season series were repackaged for overseas theatrical distribution as 1978’s Spider-Man Strikes Back and 1981’s Spider-Man: The Dragon's Challenge.

Battlestar Galactica

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