Spider-Man Breaks Avengers Record; ‘Brand New Day’ Makes History with $360 Million Opening
According to CinemaDrame News Agency, is Spider-Man’s power greater than all members of the Avengers combined? Looking at recent box office numbers, the answer is clearly yes. The feature film Spider-Man: Brand New Day made history by recording a staggering $360 million in its domestic (North American) opening weekend, taking the title of the highest-grossing opening weekend in cinematic history. Passing even Sunday’s preliminary projections of $355 million, the film successfully surpassed the previous historical record set by Avengers: Endgame in 2019 at $357 million.
Currently, Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Avengers: Endgame are the only two films in cinema history to cross the $300 million mark in a single weekend. To better put this unprecedented achievement into context, these two titles earned nearly $100 million more than the third and fourth highest openings of all time—spots held by Spider-Man: No Way Home ($260 million) and Avengers: Infinity War ($257 million). Consequently, the top four domestic openings in box office history all belong to Marvel Studios.
Tom Holland’s fourth superhero outing as Peter Parker, a joint venture between Sony and Marvel, also created a storm at the global box office, reaching an astounding $932 million worldwide—a figure that many films fail to achieve during their entire theatrical run. This marks the second-biggest international opening of all time, trailing only Avengers: Endgame ($1.2 billion).
Tom Rothman, Chairman of Sony Pictures, reacted to the historic accomplishment, stating: “Incredible! 360 million thanks to all the filmmakers, cast, producers, and my colleagues at Sony who created such a fantastic film and an outstanding marketing and distribution campaign. Records are made to be broken, but while we hold this one, we wear it with pride.”
Spider-Man: Brand New Day broke numerous other records during its debut weekend, including $72 million in preview screenings and $169.8 million on its opening day. Given strong audience satisfaction and a lack of tough competition at the box office, the film is expected to dominate theaters through the summer and easily pass the $2 billion mark—a feat achieved by only seven films in cinematic history.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton (director of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings), the story picks up immediately after the events of No Way Home, where the entire world has forgotten Peter Parker’s identity. Despite this, Peter continues his fight against crime as Spider-Man while a mysterious threat looms over New York. Fighting villains has become harder than ever, as he lacks the support of his girlfriend MJ (Zendaya) and best friend Ned (Jacob Batalon), all while battling unstable shifts and mutations in his powers.
Tom Holland’s tenure as Spider-Man remains one of the few franchises to demonstrate significant box office growth with every installment. His first standalone entry, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), opened to $117 million domestically and reached $880 million globally. Its 2019 sequel, Spider-Man: Far From Home, opened to $92 million and ultimately grossed $1.13 billion. The third installment, No Way Home, opened to $260 million on its way to a $1.9 billion worldwide total. While Holland previously hinted that plans were underway for someone else to eventually take over the mantle of Peter Parker, after this historic weekend, it is safe to say he won’t be retiring anytime soon.
