‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s’ Audience Score Is Making Rotten Tomatoes History

Tom Holland’s Spider-Man saga has always found ways to win over both critics and moviegoers, but his latest outing is proving to be something special even by that high bar. Since arriving in theaters, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘ has generated the kind of overwhelmingly positive word-of-mouth that studios spend entire marketing campaigns chasing.

The film picks up Peter Parker’s story after Doctor Strange’s spell erased the world’s memory of his identity at the end of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, sending him into a more isolated, grounded chapter of his journey as the wall-crawler. That emotional throughline appears to be resonating deeply with audiences, judging by the numbers rolling in since release.

Audiences say ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ is Verified Hot with a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes’ Popcornmeter, making it the highest-rated audience score of any solo Spider-Man film in the last decade and tying the record for the highest audience score of any Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever. That figure ties the film with ‘Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings’, which also holds a 98% audience rating, and edges out the film’s own predecessor, ‘No Way Home’, which finished its run with a 97% audience score built from more than 50,000 ratings.

Looking across Holland’s full run as Spider-Man, ‘Brand New Day’ has now claimed the top spot among audience scores for the entire trilogy plus this newest chapter. ‘No Way Home’ previously held the crown at 97%, followed by ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ at 95% and ‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ rounding out the group at 87%. That places ‘Brand New Day’ not just ahead of its immediate predecessor but ahead of every solo Spider-Man movie ever released, live-action or animated.

On the critics’ side, the film has settled at a 91% Tomatometer score from a growing pool of reviews, earning it Certified Fresh status even as it sits as the lowest-rated entry among Holland’s four Spider-Man films by that particular metric. Still, landing above 90% with both critics and general audiences simultaneously is a rare combination that even strong blockbusters don’t always manage to pull off.

Audience reactions collected by Rotten Tomatoes have leaned heavily into praise for the film’s emotional depth and visual craftsmanship. One fan reviewer wrote that the movie is “a beautiful movie about mental health, which taught me you don’t have to go through life alone,” while another called it “absolutely peak Spider-Man storytelling,” singling out Sadie Sink’s performance and describing Holland’s turn as “a slightly more mature Spider-Man.”

Part of the film’s audience connection may trace back to creative decisions made behind the scenes ahead of release. Holland has revealed that he, along with co-stars Zendaya and Jacob Batalon, “hated” an early cut of the film that had been shaped around recent test screenings designed to please audiences, and the trio pushed for a version more aligned with their original creative vision for the story. That instinct appears to have paid off given how audiences have responded since the film’s release.

It’s worth noting that these Popcornmeter figures remain fluid in a film’s early days, since they’re built from a smaller pool of verified ratings compared to the tens of thousands a movie eventually accumulates over its full run. Whether ‘Brand New Day’ holds onto its record-setting audience score as more ratings come in remains to be seen, but for now it stands as a defining early data point in what’s already shaping up to be one of the year’s biggest theatrical successes.

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