Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s Overseas Debut Just Buried ‘The Odyssey’s’ Entire Three-Week Run

Summer 2026 has been one of the most competitive box office seasons in years, with two very different blockbusters going toe-to-toe for cultural dominance. Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ spent weeks looking untouchable, riding sterling reviews and record-setting Imax numbers to become one of the year’s biggest theatrical events.

For a while, it seemed like nothing could slow Nolan’s mythological epic down. ‘The Odyssey’ opened to $124.5 million domestically and $264.1 million worldwide, then defied typical second-weekend drop-offs by falling just 27 to 30 percent to add another $87 to $90 million, pushing its global haul past $650 million in only 12 days.

That reign has now been decisively ended. According to Global Box Office, ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ has officially surpassed ‘The Odyssey’ at the worldwide box office, needing just four days to eclipse the entirety of Nolan’s three-week run, powered in large part by a jaw-dropping $123 million debut in China.

The number is staggering on its own, but it becomes even more remarkable in context. China has been a graveyard for American superhero films since the pandemic, with Marvel titles blocked from the market entirely between mid-2019 and early 2023. ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ never even played there, and recent entries like ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ and ‘Venom: The Last Dance’ limped to totals in the low tens of millions.

The last superhero movie to break $100 million in China was ‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ back in 2019, which finished its run with $199 million. ‘Brand New Day’ didn’t just clear that bar on opening weekend, it obliterated it, instantly becoming the biggest Hollywood superhero opening the country has seen in seven years and putting it on pace for a final China total that Chinese trackers like Maoyan have projected could land north of $255 million.

That surge in China was part of a broader global explosion for the Sony and Marvel Studios release. ‘Brand New Day’ pulled in $355 million domestically, the second-best North American opening of all time behind only ‘Avengers: Endgame,’ and combined with $572 million internationally for a $927 million worldwide debut, again trailing only ‘Endgame’ for the biggest global opening in movie history.

For ‘The Odyssey,’ the timing could hardly be worse. Nolan’s film had been coasting on strong word of mouth and a 94 percent Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes, with its third weekend projected to add roughly $51 million domestically even while competing directly against Tom Holland’s latest outing as Peter Parker. It’s still a very healthy run for an R-rated adaptation of a 2,700-year-old poem, but it now finds itself completely overshadowed on a global scale.

‘Brand New Day’ isn’t just winning the box office battle against ‘The Odyssey,’ it’s rewriting expectations for what a superhero movie can do internationally in a post-pandemic landscape that many assumed had permanently soured on the genre. With a 90 percent Certified Fresh rating from critics and a 98 percent audience score, the film has the reviews to match the receipts, suggesting its momentum in China and elsewhere isn’t just a one-weekend novelty.

Whether ‘Brand New Day’ can hold onto this pace through the rest of its run remains to be seen, but its opening frame alone has already reshuffled the conversation around this summer’s biggest movies.

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