After several years of closures, months-long slumps and existential uncertainty, movie theaters have enjoyed a summer full of good box office news that peaked this weekend, as Sony/Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” with some key help from the third weekend of Universal’s “The Odyssey,” pushed the U.S and Canada’s box office to the highest overall weekend total of all time.
The $355-358 million domestic opening of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” — a possible all-time record depending on Monday actuals — combined with the $51 million third weekend of “The Odyssey” to push overall totals to $434 million. That surpasses the $402 million overall total recorded in April 2019 with the opening weekend of “Avengers: Endgame” for the all-time record.
Michael O’Leary, CEO and president of movie theater trade organization Cinema United, hailed the historic weekend as proof of the power of moviegoing to bring in millions with a variety of stories.
“Moviegoers across generations made this weekend one for the record books. Our industry is at its best when there is something for everyone to see on the big screen, and this year we are seeing what happens when the innovation and creativity on display in amazing movie theaters across the country and around the world is combined with a great slate of films,” O’Leary wrote in a statement.
The “Spider-Man” MCU series, under the lead performance of Tom Holland as Peter Parker, had already shown its ability to command an immense fanbase with “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which opened to $260 million domestic and $600 million worldwide in the face of a COVID variant surge in December 2021. The return of previous “Spider-Man” stars Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield helped increase excitement for the film.
But even without the nostalgia of past Spider-Men, “Brand New Day” has reached heights once believed to be impossible after years of pandemic-induced theater closures, earning a $927 million global launch amid widespread audience acclaim that will make it a lock to reach $2 billion in global grosses.
Meanwhile, “The Odyssey,” which dominated the box office in the two weeks leading up to the release of “Spider-Man,” kept its third weekend box office drop to an impressive 43% despite the huge competition, giving it a running total of $395 million domestic and $911 million worldwide. That puts it on a similar pace to the summer 2022 hit “Top Gun: Maverick,” which finished with a cume of $1.49 billion worldwide.
To compare with the previous record holder for total grosses across all domestic releases, the No. 2 film behind the $357 million opening weekend of “Avengers: Endgame” was fellow MCU film “Captain Marvel,” a film that had been in theaters for two months and grossed $8.3 million that weekend. “The Odyssey” is a much fresher holdover that is still bringing in new audiences, pushing this weekend to the all-time overall total record by a vast margin of $32 million.
When Sunday’s grosses are calculated, the overall domestic total for 2026 will cross the $6 billion mark at the earliest point recorded since COVID lockdowns, approximately 3% ahead of the pace set in 2023, which was driven by the dual success of Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” and Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” at this point in the summer.
All in all, it’s a triumphant weekend for Sony, Universal and theaters, not just nationwide but around the world. But it’s also a big weekend for Hollywood stars Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal, who star in both hit films lighting up the charts.
In “The Odyssey,” Holland and Bernthal shared scenes as Odysseus’ son Telemachus and the Spartan king Menelaus. In “Brand New Day,” they humorously bickered on-screen as the righteous Spider-Man and his murderous erstwhile ally The Punisher.
Zendaya, who has appeared alongside Holland as MJ in previous “Spider-Man” films, appeared in “The Odyssey” as the goddess Athena. She will also appear in another expected box office hit, Warner Bros.’ “Dune: Part Three,” this holiday season.
