Tom Holland and Zendaya are in Spider-Man No Way Home.
Both Sony and Marvel.
Spider-Man was going to save the theatrical industry, and he wasn't going to sit and wait. The report states that Peter Parker flew away with $121.5 million in domestic earnings, as he held onto the wings of the eagles. The movie earned $50 million on its opening day, making it the second-biggest single-day gross of all time, behind only Star Wars: The Force Awakens. No Way Home, a multiverse-hopping adventure featuring villains from previous Spider-Man movie franchises and, uh, other surprises, isn't just playing like an Avenger's-level MCU event (think Captain America: Civil War). It is playing like a sequel.
The Friday gross is $71.5 million. Between the two films, there is a difference between a preview gross of $39 million on Thursday and a final gross of $97 million on Friday. Since A Quiet Place part II opened with $57 million over the Fri-Mon Memorial Day weekend, the theatrical marketplace has recovered to where the preordained blockbusters were. Venom opened with $90 million. The movie opened with over 50 million dollars. No Time to Die earned $775 million. After Friday, Spider-Man: No Way Home will have earned $302 million worldwide. Yeah, theaters are dead.
The Star Wars movies opened here in 2015 and 2016 with opening weekend legs similar to Spider-Man: No Way Home which opened here in 2019. That will be right behind Force Awakens,Infinity War and Endgame on the list of the biggest domestic opening weekends ever. There could be some front loading due to Covid-specific concerns. Even though Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II had a record-breaking frontloading of $92 million, it would still get Sony's sequel $223 million for the weekend. You don't need me to tell you what a big deal this is after almost two years of Covid-afflicted moviegoing.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is doing as well as it could have done if it had opened in non-covid times. The release of it suggests a larger opening than it could have achieved, as it would have been another big summer tentpole had it opened on July 16, 2021. Like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the movie, like the Kong, Free Guy and Dune, No Way Home were positioned as an even bigger event due to the shifting "theatrical savior" narratives. An all-star line-up of Spider-Man foes from the first two Spider-Man franchises was always going to be a mega-movie, and an all-star line-up of Spider-Man foes from the first two Spider-Man franchises was always going to be Tom Holland
Jon Watts' Spider-Man: No Way Home has received good reviews and good word-of-mouth. It works as a kid-appropriate, IMAX-friendly fantasy spectacle that mostly remembers to A and B and makes sure that the twists and reveals mean as much to the characters as to the audience. Sony deserves a lot of credit for knowing exactly what to reveal in the marketing and for not having to watch Disney+ shows to follow along.
Audiences can show up in pre-covid numbers for a movie they are anticipating. The brand is viable, at least with pre-sold marquee characters. It will be straight sequels for Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Captain Marvel, and the rest over the next two years. Spider-Man is larger than any other stand-alone superhero. It is a bit depressing that so many good/acclaimed adult-skewing movies made barely a blip theatrically over the last year, but that is a pre-covid problem. It is a little sad that Sony has turned previous mistakes into a touchdown by pretzeling Andrew Garfield's Spider-Man series into the next MCU.
Audiences spend more of their annual moviegoing dollars on a smaller portion of event movies while ignoring what the Internet claims they want in theaters. The pre- Covid problem was caused by a theatrical emphasis on marquee character-driven tentpoles and Hollywood's doomed pursuit of their own MCU, as well as the rise of streaming as a provider of relatively high-quality non-franchise fare. If the likes of Spider-Man: No Way Home couldn't still pack them in, theaters wouldn't survive the Pandemic. Spider-Man has turned death into a fighting chance to live.
