Spider-Man: Brand New Day is swinging far higher than expected, as the superhero feature starring Tom Holland and Zendaya is becoming a breathtaking triumph in its opening weekend at the box office for Sony Pictures.
It collected $168 million domestically on Friday from 4,487 North American screens, including Thursday previews. With the movie earning an A CinemaScore from audiences, the studio is now projecting $325 million in its opening weekend, which would count as the second-highest domestic launch ever. But rival estimates see the film’s domestic start as potentially topping Avengers: Endgame, which opened to $357.1 million domestically and a mind-boggling $1.2 billion globally in 2019.
Set to be displaced from the No. 2 spot for all-time North American debuts is Spider-Man: No Way Home, which marked the most recent lead outing for Holland’s Marvel superhero and opened to $260.1 million domestically and $587.2 million worldwide in December 2021. Its impressive success — culminating with its $1.9 billion global total for No. 8 all-time — was seen as tough to replicate, given the buzzy appearances of past Peter Parkers in Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, not to mention the absence of major theatrical competition coming out of COVID.
Hailing from producers Marvel Studios and Amy Pascal, Spider-Man: Brand New Day now holds the record for the top opening Friday domestic tally, surpassing Avengers: Endgame’s $156.7 million. Spidey caught a thunderous $72 million from Thursday previews, which also set the record for a preview sum, beating the $60 million that Endgame earned.
This spectacular start for Spider-Man: Brand New Day is far outstripping the $195 million domestic and $465 million global that the studio had been projecting. Even a domestic opening at $195 million would have put the film among the top 10 all-time debuts, but that number appears quaint at this point. The project carries a $225 million production budget.
MJ (Zendaya) watches Spider-Man work in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Jay Maidment/Sony Pictures
Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal and Mark Ruffalo also star in the film from Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings director Destin Daniel Cretton. It centers on Marvel Comics’ signature hero as he endures a lonely life without his loved ones before an invisible enemy tracks him down.
Moviegoers have been pleased, as Brand New Day delivers a 90 percent approval rating from reviewers on Rotten Tomatoes, along with a 98 percent audience score. In his review for The Hollywood Reporter, chief film critic David Rooney championed “a never-better Tom Holland.”
Also opening in wide release this weekend is filmmaker Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex, starring Olivia Wilde and Cooper Hoffman. Magnolia Pictures releases the comedic thriller in 700 North American theaters after acquiring the movie in a reported seven-figure deal following its Sundance premiere. I Want Your Sex is eyeing a domestic opening weekend of around $675,000 for eighth place.
After holding the top spot for the past two weekends, Universal’s The Odyssey journeys to second place with an estimated $51 million and a domestic total of $395 million. Tellingly, studios avoided releasing any titles last weekend to not risk falling between the commanding openings for Christopher Nolan’s mythological epic and Brand New Day.
Next up is Pixar’s Toy Story 5, collecting around $6.2 million to take its domestic cume to $461 million. Fellow animated title Minions & Monsters is expected to earn $5.6 million to bring the Illumination movie’s domestic tally to $168 million.
Rounding out the top five is Disney’s live-action Moana. The Dwayne Johnson-led remake is collecting around $5.3 million for a domestic total of $114 million.
