‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Smashed All-Time Box Office Records in a Surprising Territory

France has always been one of the more unpredictable markets when it comes to Hollywood blockbusters, with local tastes and stiff competition from domestic releases often keeping even the biggest franchise films from posting truly historic numbers. That makes what’s unfolding with Tom Holland’s latest Spider-Man outing all the more remarkable.

‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ kicked off its French rollout on Wednesday as part of the film’s broader European wave, joining simultaneous openings across the UK, Italy, Spain, and several other major markets. Early results out of France suggest the film isn’t just performing well there, it’s rewriting the country’s box office history books entirely.

The film pulled in an estimated 6.8 million dollars and 650,000 admissions on its opening Wednesday, marking the biggest opening day of all time in France by dollar amount. That total comfortably surpasses ‘Avengers: Endgame’s’ previous benchmark of 6 million dollars and 692,000 admissions, while crushing ‘No Way Home’s’ post-Covid opening day record of 4.3 million dollars and 476,000 admissions.

While ‘Brand New Day’ now holds the all-time dollar record, 2007’s ‘Spider-Man 3’ still holds the admissions crown, having drawn 802,000 moviegoers to French theaters on its opening day. Still, landing at third all-time in admissions while setting the outright dollar record speaks to just how strong ticket demand has been for this release.

The film also crushed every other 2026 release in France by a wide margin, more than doubling the opening day totals of ‘The Odyssey,’ which debuted to 2.6 million dollars and 233,000 admissions, as well as ‘Michael,’ which opened to 2.7 million dollars and 286,000 admissions, and ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ which posted 3 million dollars and 315,000 admissions.

Zooming out further, ‘Brand New Day’s’ opening day more than doubled the debuts of several major post-Covid hits in the French market, including ‘Oppenheimer,’ ‘Zootopia 2,’ ‘Lilo & Stitch,’ ‘Dune: Part Two,’ and ‘Deadpool & Wolverine,’ all of which topped out somewhere between 1.3 million and 2.3 million dollars on their respective opening days. Even bigger releases like ‘Barbie,’ ‘Gladiator II,’ and ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ fell short of matching Wednesday’s haul.

Word of mouth among French audiences appears to be holding strong as well, with the film currently pulling a 4.2-star audience score, equivalent to an A on the CinemaScore, despite a more mixed 3.3-star reception from critics. That audience number reportedly stands as the highest of any Tom Holland-led Spider-Man film in the market, edging out ‘No Way Home’s’ 3.9-star audience score, ‘Far From Home’s’ 3.7 stars, and ‘Homecoming’s’ 3.5 stars.

With Wednesday’s numbers already in the books, French box office trackers are now projecting a five-day opening somewhere between 28 million and 32 million dollars, a figure that would cement ‘Brand New Day’ as one of the biggest theatrical openings the country has seen in years. Combined with the record-setting results already reported out of Italy, Spain, and the UK, the film’s European rollout is shaping up to be one of the defining box office stories of the year.

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