‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Enters IMDb’s Top 250 Movies of All Time, and Fans Think It Deserves Even More Praise

Superhero fatigue has been the dominant storyline hovering over Marvel for the past couple of years, with even the most loyal fans admitting they’ve grown more selective about which releases actually earn their time. Against that backdrop, expectations for Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Spider-Man were cautiously optimistic at best.

Those expectations have been thoroughly upended in the days since release. Between record-breaking box office numbers and glowing critical reception, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ has spent its opening week doing exactly what franchise films rarely manage this late into a character’s run: exceeding what audiences thought was still possible.

The clearest sign of that came when the film officially cracked IMDb’s Top 250 Movies of All Time list, currently sitting at number 230 with an 8.2 out of 10 rating built from nearly 60,000 user votes. That kind of placement puts the film in rarefied territory, especially for a franchise now on its eleventh live-action installment.

That 8.2 score also puts ‘Brand New Day’ ahead of every prior Holland-led Spider-Man film, edging past ‘No Way Home’s’ 8.1 and comfortably outpacing ‘Homecoming’s’ 7.4 and ‘Far From Home’s’ 7.3. It’s a notable jump given how strong the reception to ‘No Way Home’ already was back in 2021.

Much of the credit for that reaction is being pointed toward how personal director Destin Daniel Cretton made this particular chapter feel. In an interview with ScreenRant, Cretton described this version of Peter as someone who’s “imperfect, clumsy with his words, makes a lot of mistakes” while still trying to do right by the people around him, adding that he wanted the character to feel disconnected despite living in a city packed with millions of people.

That emotional throughline appears to be exactly what’s resonating with audiences. Fan reviews circulating on Rotten Tomatoes echo similar sentiments, with one viewer calling it “a beautiful movie about mental health” that reflects you don’t have to go through life alone, while another praised the film as “nearly a perfect Spider-Man movie” thanks in large part to Sadie Sink’s performance alongside a more mature Holland.

Critics have been similarly enthusiastic, if slightly more measured. The Los Angeles Times’ Amy Nicholson praised Cretton for making “a humanist super-flick,” while The New York Times’ Alissa Wilkinson highlighted Holland’s performance as “winsome and wonderfully kinetic” even accounting for heavy CGI work. Not every reaction has been glowing, though, with Rolling Stone’s David Fear arguing the film gets tangled in its own overly complicated plotting.

That mixed pocket of criticism hasn’t stopped the overwhelming fan response from pushing the film into such rare IMDb territory this quickly. Landing at 230 on an all-time list within days of release, rather than months or years, suggests the kind of sustained enthusiasm that could push the ranking even higher as more votes come in.

For a franchise now well into its second decade of Holland’s tenure, cracking a list typically dominated by decades-old classics and critical darlings marks a genuinely significant milestone. Whether that ranking holds steady, climbs further, or settles back down as initial excitement cools remains to be seen, but for now, ‘Brand New Day’ has already secured its place among cinema’s most acclaimed films.

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