Sony’s latest offering in the Spiderman franchise, Spiderman: No Way Home is now officially the second-highest opening for the domestic box office- ever, beating out Avengers: Infinity War’s $257M with a neat $260M. It also holds the third-highest global debut and a host of other new records, not just around the pandemic box office. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A, digs into the figures and what they mean.
Resounding success
With that global debut currently sitting at over $600M, it’s hard not to feel pleased. Likewise, its first weekend closed at $64M, the third-best Sunday of all time, not merely during the health crisis, beating out Black Panther and Star Wars alike to take the title. Revised Friday and Saturday grosses sit at almost $122M and $74M respectively. This is after soaring to $114M in two days on overseas releases alone. With a lot of life left in the film over the holiday period, that’s a lot of cash potential, too. We may even see another record or two falls along the way.
Nor does it stop at the cash. Box Office analytics firm, intelligence, puts estimates at 20M people watching the film this weekend. AMC tells us it sold 5M over the last four days in the US, and 7M across its global locations. For that circuit, it is the biggest December opening they’ve had. It also counts as a post-COVID domestic milestone, setting attendance records on Thursday only to smash them on Friday and again on Saturday. With 2 M-filled seats across the AMC chain on Saturday, we also see their Christmas Day 2019 record broken. Sunday gave them another notable record- the first time 1M tickets a day (at least) have been sold for AMC since December 2019. All in all, not a bad set of records broken for the much-anticipated title.
Christmas Spirit
December is, of course, the biggest month in the calendar for blockbuster releases. Seeing such a record-busting release must make a lot of people feel good about the future of the Box Office, even with Omicron still tapping at our heels. It seems that wherever this title goes, success follows, and so do audiences. Something of a gift that keeps on giving, if you forgive the pun. Quite a difference from last year’s disastrous launch of Wonder Woman 1984, too, including HBO Max’s notorious day-and-date release. Spiderman has launched with a 45-day exclusive theatrical window.
It seems that, with the right title in hand, movie-going is certainly alive and kicking. While Spiderman did little to shift the overwhelming 18-34 demographic that’s been most willing to get back to live exhibition, it’s a victory however you look at it. It is even receiving good reviews across the board, including from audience ratings as well as critics.
It’s a title that’s been massively anticipated, and that shows in the ecstatic global opening it has had. It’s also one that banked on theaters to show it, and audiences to come, and that victory may well be the most resounding of all. America, it seems, will return to the theaters with the right film on the screen. Now it’s time to solidify that willingness into a full theatrical recovery.