A box office record once believed to be unbreakable might fall this weekend, as Sony/Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has earned an unbelievable $72 million from Thursday preview screenings, shattering the previous preview record of $60 million set by “Avengers: Endgame” in April 2019.
On that weekend seven years ago, “Endgame” grossed $357 million domestic and $1.2 billion worldwide, capitalizing on 11 years of Marvel Cinematic Universe narratives to achieve a launch that many thought would never happen again. But with this start, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is firmly within striking distance of that record, as the film is also set for a 5-day opening record overseas of at least $850 million.
The fourth “Spider-Man” film starring Tom Holland has also earned sterling audience scores across the board, including an A on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 91% critics and 98% audience. With this rave reception and a lack of major box office titles in August, “Brand New Day” has everything it needs for a global theatrical run of more than $2 billion.
Combined with the third weekend of Universal’s “The Odyssey,” “Brand New Day” should also set a new record for the highest overall domestic weekend in box office history, which reached $402 million on the launch weekend of “Endgame.” Such a result would push domestic grosses for the year to date past the $6 billion mark, making it all but certain that it will reach $10 billion by year’s end for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic.
