Sony/Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is on the cusp of box office history as it has rocketed to the second highest global opening weekend of all time with a stunning $927 million global gross, including an estimated $355 million domestic launch.
It will come down to Sunday matinee and evening walk-up sales to determine whether Tom Holland’s fourth “Spider-Man” film will surpass the $357 million opening of the 2019 Marvel spectacular “Avengers: Endgame” for the all-time domestic record, though the odds are heavily in its favor with the way it has held through the weekend. “Endgame” will retain the global record with a $1.22 billion worldwide start.
If “Brand New Day” does surpass “Endgame,” it will come with the caveat that its total includes Wednesday early access screenings for Prime Video members that “Endgame” did not have, as well as a Thursday preview period that began at noon rather than the 6 PM start for “Avengers.”
But that scarcely diminishes the magnitude of what this film has achieved in a theatrical landscape that has been dramatically changed by a global pandemic, an industry strike, and new audience interests and viewing habits. Between the struggles of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the theatrical industry at large to bring moviegoers back to theaters, the $260 million domestic/$600 million opening of the nostalgia-fueled “Spider-Man: No Way Home” in 2021 seemed like a post-COVID bar that might never be cleared.
Instead, the world’s love of Spider-Man, and specifically of Tom Holland’s version of Spider-Man, has come through in a way that exceeded even the wildest hopes and expectations. On top of that, reception scores are only slightly below the sky-high scores of “No Way Home,” including an A on CinemaScore, a 98% Rotten Tomatoes audience score, and an 88% “definite recommend” return on PostTrak.
Between those scores, a light August release slate, and this huge start, “Brand New Day” is very likely to become the eighth film in history and the first non-“Avengers” Marvel film to gross $2 billion worldwide, setting a very high bar for “Avengers: Doomsday” to top for the title of highest grossing movie of 2026 when it comes out this holiday season.
Meanwhile, Universal/Syncopy’s “The Odyssey” held very well in the face of this historic competition, adding $51 million domestic and $136.2 million worldwide in its third weekend. While it could not maintain the 27% domestic and 3% overseas drop posted last weekend, it still held its drop to a respectable 43% domestic and 38% overseas as its totals now stand at $395 million in North America and $911 million worldwide.
That puts “The Odyssey” roughly on the same pace as the 2022 box office hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” a film that reached just shy of $1.5 billion worldwide. As “The Odyssey” prepares to pass the $1 billion mark next weekend, it remains on track to become the highest grossing R-rated film ever before inflation adjustment.