‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Knocked ‘Avatar’ Out of the Top Four All-Time Domestic Chart

Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Spider-Man has spent three straight weekends dominating the box office, and its third frame in theaters delivered yet another milestone that once seemed unthinkable for a franchise sequel this deep into its run. Rather than settling into the usual post-opening decline, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ has continued climbing the all-time charts with a pace that’s left box office analysts scrambling to keep up, redefining expectations for what a fourth installment can accomplish.

That momentum carried into the film’s third weekend, when it earned $70 million domestically, according to updated figures from Sony, marking the second-best third weekend in domestic box office history behind only ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens.’ The drop from its previous weekend came in at 51.5%, a steeper decline than ‘Avengers: Endgame’s’ 57.1% or ‘Deadpool & Wolverine’s’ 44.5% third-weekend slides, though the underlying dollar figures still eclipsed both films by a wide margin.

That third-weekend haul pushed ‘Brand New Day’s’ domestic cume to $785.8 million after just 15 days in theaters, officially surpassing ‘Avatar’s’ $785.2 million total and making it the fourth highest-grossing movie in domestic box office history. The film now sits roughly $62 million ahead of where ‘Avengers: Endgame’ stood at the same point in its own historic run, despite having opened just $3 million ahead of Endgame’s early pace.

With ‘No Way Home’s’ $814.8 million domestic total now sitting just $32 million away, industry trackers expect ‘Brand New Day’ to cross $800 million by Tuesday, putting it on track to overtake its own franchise predecessor within days. Some projections now place the film’s eventual domestic total somewhere between $910 million and $960 million, a range that would make it only the second film in history to cross the $900 million mark and put it within realistic striking distance of ‘The Force Awakens’s’ eleven-year-old domestic record of $936.6 million.

The film’s worldwide performance has kept pace with its domestic surge. ‘Brand New Day’ crossed $2 billion globally in just 17 days, according to Cosmic Book News, becoming the eighth movie in history to reach that threshold and the second-fastest ever to do it behind only ‘Endgame’s’ 11-day run, while simultaneously surpassing ‘No Way Home’s’ $1.92 billion total to become the highest-grossing ‘Spider-Man’ film ever made.

That international run has already become the biggest in Sony’s history, with box office watchers now projecting the film could ultimately push toward $2.5 billion worldwide, a total that would place it alongside only ‘Avatar’ and ‘Avengers: Endgame’ among films to cross that mark before any inflation adjustments or theatrical rereleases.

With minimal major competition on the release calendar in the coming weeks, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ remains the top film in theaters for a third consecutive weekend, a feat matched this year only by the billion-dollar animated hit ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.’ Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige has said he never expected ‘Endgame’s’ domestic opening record to fall, but that he couldn’t be happier it happened with the studio’s 38th MCU release.

As the film closes in on both ‘No Way Home’ and eventually ‘The Force Awakens’ itself, ‘Brand New Day’ looks increasingly likely to finish its theatrical run as one of the defining box office stories of the decade. With no signs of major competition arriving before the fall, this record-setting climb shows little indication of slowing down anytime soon.

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