‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Beat Every ‘Avatar’ Movie in This Major Box Office Metric

Hollywood’s relationship with Chinese theaters has been rocky for years, with superhero films in particular struggling to recapture the box office dominance they once enjoyed in the world’s second-largest film market. That makes what’s unfolding with Tom Holland’s latest Spider-Man outing feel like a genuine turning point.

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ opened across China ahead of its North American release, giving industry watchers an early read on how much appetite remains for Marvel’s flagship webslinger in a market that’s shut out superhero movies more often than not over the past several years. The early results have exceeded even the most optimistic pre-release forecasts.

The film pulled in an estimated 35 million dollars on its opening day in China, marking the biggest single-day gross for a comic book movie in the country since ‘Avengers: Endgame’ back in 2019. That single benchmark alone would have been a significant story, but the momentum hasn’t stopped there.

Industry trackers are now projecting the film to bring in somewhere between 130 million and 150 million dollars by the end of its opening weekend, a total that would represent the best opening weekend for any Hollywood film in China this decade, surpassing even James Cameron’s ‘Avatar‘ films. Ticketing giant Maoyan has projected an eventual full-run total of roughly 255 million dollars, with rival tracker Dengta forecasting an even higher 265 million dollars.

Either of those totals would rank as Hollywood’s largest China gross since ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ which pulled in over 632 million dollars in the country back in 2019. It would also mean ‘Brand New Day’ surpasses ‘Avatar: The Way of Water,’ which previously held the post-Endgame benchmark at 246 million dollars.

Context makes this run even more remarkable. ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home,’ the direct predecessor to ‘Brand New Day,’ never played in Chinese theaters at all after local regulators objected to the film’s use of the Statue of Liberty in its climactic sequence. That absence effectively left years of pent-up demand for Holland’s Spider-Man completely untapped, and this release appears to be cashing in on all of it at once.

Presales alone told part of that story before the film even opened, reportedly totaling roughly 18.6 million dollars, the strongest advance haul for any imported release in China over the past three summers. The film also reportedly surpassed the entire presale total posted by ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ registering the biggest comic book movie presale performance in China since ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Avengers: Infinity War.’

China’s superhero box office had largely gone cold in the years since Endgame, with Marvel titles facing intermittent market blocks and underwhelming returns even after regulations eased. Recent entries like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ and ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ topped out in the 85 to 95 million dollar range, making ‘Brand New Day’s’ current trajectory look less like a strong opening and more like a full-blown reversal of that trend.

With the film’s global rollout still unfolding and North American audiences yet to weigh in, ‘Brand New Day’ has already reshaped expectations for what a superhero release can do in China right now. If this pace holds through the rest of its run, it could end up being one of the most significant box office comeback stories of the year for Hollywood in the region.

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