‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Proved Hollywood Doesn’t Need IMAX to Make History

Box office records tend to fall in predictable ways these days, with superhero sequels and legacy franchises trading blows for the top spots. What’s rarer is watching a film break records while simultaneously being locked out of one of the industry’s most valuable tools.

That’s exactly the situation surrounding ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ as it swings into theaters. Sony and Marvel’s latest webslinging adventure has spent the past several weeks generating some of the most feverish advance buzz of the year, and Thursday night’s numbers suggest the hype was more than justified.

The film’s preview screenings pulled in more than $50 million domestically, according to reports, putting it ahead of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’s own $50 million preview haul from 2021. Some sources have gone even further, suggesting the true number lands closer to $70 million or higher, which would put ‘Brand New Day’ within reach of the $60 million all-time preview record set by ‘Avengers: Endgame’ in 2019.

For context, that Endgame benchmark has stood for years as the gold standard for opening-night hype, previously bested only by ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ at $57 million. If Thursday’s final tally holds up anywhere near the higher estimates being floated, ‘Brand New Day’ would be staking a real claim to the top of that list.

What makes the achievement even more remarkable is the format it happened without. ‘Brand New Day’ is playing in zero IMAX screens domestically, after Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ locked down a multi-week IMAX exclusivity agreement that has kept every American IMAX auditorium reserved for his film since mid-July.

Rather than go without a premium large-format option, Sony leaned into an alternative. The film became the first ever to be “Shot for ScreenX,” a new initiative from CJ 4DPlex built specifically around the company’s 270-degree panoramic auditoriums, with a dedicated crew capturing footage designed for the format during production rather than converting existing footage afterward.

That distinction matters for a franchise long associated with spectacle-driven moviegoing. Losing access to IMAX typically means losing out on higher-priced premium tickets that can meaningfully boost a film’s opening numbers, making the preview haul even more impressive given the circumstances.

Notably, director Destin Daniel Cretton has said he framed the movie with IMAX’s expansive canvas in mind during production, which makes the format’s absence from the rollout an even bigger swing for Sony’s marketing team. CJ 4DPlex CEO Jun Bang described the new ScreenX collaboration in comments to Variety as an effort to “expand the film’s visual canvas while preserving the director’s creative vision,” positioning it as a genuine alternative rather than a consolation prize for moviegoers chasing the biggest possible screen.

‘Brand New Day’ isn’t the only major 2026 tentpole navigating this squeeze. Marvel’s upcoming ‘Avengers: Doomsday’ will face a similar IMAX shortage later this year due to scheduling conflicts with another Denis Villeneuve release, suggesting studios may need to keep getting creative with premium formats as demand for giant-screen bookings continues to outstrip supply.

The film’s box office momentum lines up with strong reception elsewhere too. ‘Brand New Day’ opened to a 91 percent approval rating among critics on Rotten Tomatoes, putting it in line with other well-regarded entries in the Tom Holland trilogy, and industry trackers have been steadily revising their weekend projections upward as demand has become clearer.

Tracking estimates for the full opening weekend have ranged from a conservative $190 million from studio sources to independent projections as high as $250 million to $300 million, a range that would place the film among the five biggest domestic openings in box office history if it lands anywhere near the top end.

Whatever the final numbers end up being, ‘Brand New Day’ has already made its point: audiences don’t necessarily need the IMAX label to show up in force for a movie they’re excited about.