‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Just Swung Past a 22-Year-Old Animated Classic in Ticket Sales

Box office milestones have practically become routine at this point for Tom Holland’s latest solo outing, with the film continuing to rack up record after record months into its theatrical run. Few movies in recent memory have sustained this level of dominance for as long as ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ has managed since its late-July debut.

That dominance began almost immediately, when the film shattered the all-time domestic opening weekend record with $360 million, edging past ‘Avengers: Endgame’s previous benchmark of $357 million set back in 2019. From there, the momentum barely slowed, with the film crossing $2 billion globally in just seventeen days, one of the fastest runs to that milestone in box office history.

Now, in yet another milestone worth noting, ‘Brand New Day’ has surpassed ‘Shrek 2’ in estimated domestic ticket sales, pushing the Tom Holland-led sequel into the top 10 biggest ticket sellers in American box office history. That comparison carries genuine weight given just how dominant DreamWorks’ 2004 sequel was in its own era, having sold an estimated 71 million tickets domestically during its original theatrical run and holding the second-biggest opening weekend of all time at the moment of its release, trailing only the original ‘Spider-Man’.

Beyond that specific milestone, ‘Brand New Day’ has continued climbing the broader superhero rankings as well, recently passing Sam Raimi’s original 2002 ‘Spider-Man’ to claim seventh place on the all-time list of most-attended superhero movies domestically. With momentum still building, the film is tracking to overtake ‘Avengers: Endgame’s domestic haul entirely, positioning it for the number two spot on the all-time domestic chart behind only ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’.

That kind of staying power reflects the film’s broader critical and commercial success story. ‘Brand New Day’ currently holds a 90 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes alongside an A CinemaScore rating from opening weekend audiences, numbers that suggest the film’s box office performance isn’t simply front-loaded hype but genuine sustained enthusiasm.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, the film picks up four years after the events of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, following Peter Parker as an adult living entirely alone after voluntarily erasing himself from the memories of everyone he loves. As his full-time crime-fighting takes an increasingly heavy toll, a strange new pattern of crimes gives rise to one of the most powerful threats he’s ever faced, driving much of the film’s central conflict.

The film’s continued strength at the box office also comes amid an unusually competitive stretch for 2026 releases, with ‘Toy Story 5’, ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’, and ‘Michael’ all crossing the billion-dollar threshold earlier this year. That crowded field makes ‘Brand New Day’s sustained dominance even more notable, especially as it heads toward a potential showdown with ‘Avengers: Endgame’ for the all-time domestic runner-up spot, particularly with Endgame’s own September theatrical re-release potentially padding its final tally.

Given how thoroughly ‘Brand New Day’ has rewritten box office expectations throughout its run, surpassing a beloved animated classic like ‘Shrek 2’ in ticket sales feels like just another entry in an increasingly long list of records the film has claimed. Whether it can ultimately climb even higher up the all-time charts remains one of the more compelling box office storylines still playing out this year.

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