‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Smashed a Presales Record That Hasn’t Fallen in Five Years
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has been building toward a massive summer, and few upcoming releases are carrying more raw anticipation than ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day.’
The film is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, with Tom Holland reprising his role as Peter Parker alongside Zendaya as MJ, and Jon Bernthal, Sadie Sink, and Liza Colón-Zayas also confirmed in the cast. Mark Ruffalo, Jacob Batalon, Tramell Tillman, and Michael Mando round out an ensemble that signals serious MCU connective tissue at play.
The story picks up in the aftermath of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ with Peter Parker navigating a world that no longer remembers him, while the pressure of watching his old friends move on without him sparks a change he may not have the power to control, as a powerful villain no one can even see threatens everything he loves.
A newly released trailer also gave audiences their first look at Ruffalo’s return as the Hulk, with Peter seeking out Dr. Bruce Banner, who has found a way to suppress mutating DNA.
Against that backdrop of mounting excitement, the advance ticket sales numbers are nothing short of extraordinary. According to Deadline, the Tom Holland-starring sequel has posted the best first-day presales in five years and the strongest of the year to date. The presales surge follows early tracking numbers that had already shown ‘Brand New Day’ topping the entire summer slate in audience interest.
Fandango confirmed that the upcoming superhero adventure has become the ticketing service’s biggest first-day ticket pre-seller of the year, surpassing ‘Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu,’ ‘Project Hail Mary,’ and ‘The Odyssey’ as the largest traditional movie launch of the year.
The film is also making history for Fandango as one of its top ten all-time first-day ticket pre-sellers. While a specific dollar figure has not been confirmed, advance sales are north of $37 million, already surpassing what ‘Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour’ posted after its own record-setting first day of advance ticket sales.
The benchmark being cleared here is a meaningful one. The last time presales records like this were set was for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ which accumulated an estimated $78 million in advance sales before its December 2021 opening, going on to post the second-best domestic opening ever at $260.1 million, behind only ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ is also understood to have cleared the bar set by ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,’ which opened to $187.4 million domestically.
What makes the achievement even more striking is the context surrounding it. ‘Brand New Day’ is arriving without IMAX, with those premium screens still committed to Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ opening two weeks prior.
Despite Holland suffering an injury on set, the film was not pushed from its July 31 date, and anything less than a $200 million domestic debut would come as a genuine surprise at this stage, with only ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ in the running to surpass it as the year’s biggest release.
Director Cretton weighed in on the franchise’s future with deliberate ambiguity when speaking to Deadline’s Crew Call podcast, saying “Is there ever a last Spider-Man? Everyone should go to this (movie) as if it’s the last Spider-Man.”
With presales already rewriting the record books before a single frame has been seen by the public, the question of whether this Peter Parker era is truly closing feels more alive than ever. Given the way ‘No Way Home’ used multiverse spectacle to drive its historic run, do you think ‘Brand New Day’ can match that phenomenon on its own terms, or does its more grounded story work in its favor?
