Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to dominate the North American box office, earning an estimated $30 million this weekend. That's actually better than how the last few Star Wars movies performed during their fourth weekends after opening in December, and by close of business on Sunday, the Sony Pictures/Marvel Studios threequel will have grossed a whopping $666.5 million.
That makes it the sixth highest-grossing movie at the domestic box office, usurping Titanic!
Is Spider-Man: No Way Home a blip on the radar? A one-off box office hit before we start seeing movies underperform causing another wave of delays thanks to those rising COVID-19 cases? No one seems quite sure right now, but Deadline's Anthony D'Alessandro makes a great point in his piece.
"It's an event that plays to all quads and sub-quads and underscores how you can still draw audiences away from their sofas with the right mass-appealing product," the trade says of this latest Spider-Man movie's unprecedented succes, "even if we’re freaked out over the variant."
One movie that has flopped this weekend is Simon Kinberg's female-led The 355. Why any studio would trust him with any sort of high profile project is hard to say, but with a dismal 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, it looks set to gross just $4.3 million this weekend. A single digit debut is never good, and while it has earned a B+ CinemaScore, its $75 million budget might have made it a better fit for streaming.
So, Spider-Man: No Way Home continus to reigns supreme. Until The Batman arrives in early March, we won't truly know if its success if a one-off, but Uncharted should be a good test next month. With Tom Holland and Mark Wahlberg in lead roles, it has all the makings of a box office hit. We'll see.