‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Officially Passes ‘The Force Awakens’ to Become the 5th Highest-Grossing Film Ever

Box office chart-climbing usually happens gradually, one modest milestone at a time. Every so often, though, a film comes along that seems to skip several rungs of the ladder at once, and Tom Holland’s latest outing has spent the past month doing exactly that.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has been rewriting box office history since its record-shattering debut in late July, and its climb up the all-time global rankings has continued at a pace few blockbusters ever manage to sustain. Every new milestone has arrived faster than the last, keeping the film firmly at the center of this year’s biggest box office conversations.

The film has now officially surpassed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and its 2.071 billion dollar worldwide total, making “Brand New Day” the fifth highest-grossing film of all time globally, not adjusted for inflation. That places it just behind “Titanic” at 2.26 billion dollars, with “Avatar,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” rounding out the top four spots above it.

According to Sony Pictures, “Brand New Day” was projected to close its fourth weekend in theaters with a cumulative global gross of 2.22 billion dollars, made up of 855 million dollars domestically and an additional 1.365 billion dollars from international markets. That total places the film only 45 million dollars away from also overtaking “Titanic” and cracking the top four worldwide.

The film’s trajectory toward this milestone has been unusually consistent given how steep most blockbuster box office curves tend to fall after opening weekend. “Brand New Day” opened with a 360 million dollar domestic debut, breaking the previous opening weekend record set by “Avengers: Endgame,” and followed that up with a 144.5 million dollar second weekend, a hold only “Endgame” and “The Force Awakens” have ever topped.

Its third weekend brought in another 70 million dollars, marking the second-best third weekend in box office history and pushing its domestic cume past 785 million dollars. By the end of that same weekend, “Brand New Day” had already become the fourth highest-grossing domestic film of all time, trailing only “The Force Awakens,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” while sitting ahead of “Avatar.”

Roughly 60 percent of the film’s worldwide total has come from international markets, where it’s already become Sony’s biggest release ever and the highest-grossing Hollywood movie in Indian box office history. China currently leads all international territories, with the U.K., Mexico and India following closely behind.

With “The Force Awakens” now in its rearview mirror, attention has shifted toward whether “Brand New Day” can eventually challenge “Avengers: Endgame” for the title of highest-grossing superhero film ever. That race remains far from settled, since “Brand New Day” has already outpaced “Endgame” in certain metrics, including its domestic debut, while still trailing behind in others, such as global opening weekend totals.

Complicating matters further, “Endgame” is set for its own theatrical rerelease this September as Marvel builds anticipation ahead of “Avengers: Doomsday,” giving the 2019 blockbuster a chance to pad its own final numbers before “Brand New Day” can fully close the gap. Regardless of how that particular race plays out, “Brand New Day” has firmly established itself as one of the defining box office stories of the year.

Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and starring Holland alongside Zendaya, Sadie Sink and Jon Bernthal, “Brand New Day” continues adding to its box office total daily, meaning its current position on the all-time chart may not be its final resting place. With momentum still very much intact, the film’s push toward the top of the worldwide rankings shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.

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