‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Missed Box Office History, and the Margin Is Almost Too Close to Believe

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has spent years living in the shadow of one another’s blockbuster box office milestones, and this weekend gave fans a reason to wonder if that shadow was finally about to lift. ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ arrived in theaters nearly five years after ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ left off, picking up in a world where everyone has forgotten Peter Parker’s secret identity.

The buildup to release had already been enormous, with early tracking and preview numbers hinting that Sony and Marvel were sitting on something historic.

That anticipation only grew as the weekend played out. ‘Brand New Day’ shattered the record for the biggest single day in box office history on Friday, pulling in a reported $168 million and edging past the mark previously held by ‘Avengers: Endgame.’ It also broke the all-time preview record earlier in the week with $72 million in early screenings, topping the $60 million ‘Endgame’ had set in Thursday previews back in 2019.

By the time Sunday numbers came in, though, ‘Brand New Day’ had fallen just short of the true prize. The film closed its domestic opening weekend with an estimated $355 million, landing as the second-biggest opening weekend in box office history rather than the record breaker some had predicted, missing ‘Avengers: Endgame’s’ $357 million mark by roughly $2 million. Saturday alone brought in $101.5 million, just behind the $109.2 million Saturday that ‘Endgame’ posted during its own historic run.

The film’s international performance told a similarly staggering story, even if it also landed one spot shy of the top. ‘Brand New Day’ added $573 million from overseas markets for a worldwide total of $927 million, making it the second-biggest global opening ever behind only ‘Endgame’s’ $1.22 billion debut.

Combined with the continued strength of ‘The Odyssey,’ which added another $51 million domestically in its third weekend, the two films powered the single highest-earning weekend in domestic box office history at roughly $430 million total.

Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige addressed the numbers directly once the estimates came in, calling the results a truly phenomenal opening and thanking audiences everywhere for experiencing the film the way it was meant to be seen, as Feige said in comments. The film’s reception has matched its financial performance, holding a 90 percent critic score on Rotten Tomatoes alongside an A grade from CinemaScore exit polling, according to multiple outlets tracking its release.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring Holland alongside Zendaya, ‘Brand New Day’ cost Sony an estimated $225 million to produce, not including marketing expenses. That investment now looks well justified, with the film also setting a new all-time domestic opening record for Sony as a studio, dwarfing the $260 million debut posted by ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ four years earlier.

It additionally marked the best-ever opening weekend for director Cretton and for Zendaya individually, while ranking as Holland’s second-best behind only his appearance in ‘Avengers: Endgame.’

Whether ‘Brand New Day’ can close the gap on ‘Endgame’ in the weeks ahead remains an open question, especially with a Monday actuals report from Sony still to come that could shift the final tally in either direction. For now, the film sits as the fourth Marvel release to claim a spot among the four largest domestic openings of all time, a fact that underscores just how dominant the studio’s output remains even years removed from its ‘Endgame’ peak.

With ‘The Odyssey’ still performing strongly and major releases like ‘Dune 3’ and ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ still on the horizon, this summer’s box office race is shaping up to be one of the most competitive in years.

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