The success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day at the box office could be seen like a runaway freight train in the days before its release. Anticipation not only for the next Marvel movie, but specifically the next Spider-Man movie after a five-year wait, coupled with stars Tom Holland and Zendaya, had this one on a collision course with history. Estimates for the box office success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day already had it breaking one record, with the film combining with The Odyssey to deliver the biggest weekend at the domestic box office in history. Now, the hero has taken another title, beating out all of The Avengers.
Sony Pictures has released its actual figures about Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s opening weekend data, which reveals its estimates actually had the numbers a little short of reality. New data from the studio confirms that Spider-Man: Brand New Day officially opened to $360 million at the domestic box office, meaning that the film has officially beaten Avengers: Endgame for the top slot. The 2019 MCU movie held the record previously with a $357 million haul, previously deflecting Spider-Man with 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, which sits right behind it with $260 million.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day officially reclaiming the biggest domestic opening weekend of all-time record is shocking for a few reasons. The first is that the idea of “superhero fatigue” has been a major pain point for Marvel and Hollywood over the last seven years, with few films being able to break out in a major way in the post-Endgame landscape.
The second is that, even though the film does include other Marvel characters, this is still a solo superhero movie at the end of the day. As a result, setting a record like this without stars like Robert Downey Jr, Chris Evans, and Chris Hemsworth is a major boon for the already stellar career of Tom Holland. It also begs the question of what Avengers: Doomsday will look like this December.
Film fans who recall the history of the Biggest Domestic Opening Weekend record may not have been surprised by the fact that Spider-Man: Brand New Day claimed the crown, as it marks the third time that the superhero has managed to do so. Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man set the record in 2002 with $114 million, not only defeating Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone for the role but becoming the first movie ever to open to more than $100 million.
Raimi’s original film would hold the record for four years, with 2007’s Spider-Man 3 taking it back from Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and claiming the title with a $151 million haul (The Dark Knight would beat it the next year). From there, the title bounced around between various Avengers movies, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and even Jurassic World, before Endgame took it in 2019. Now, Spider-Man has it once again.
