As the weekend rolls on, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is nipping at Avengers: Endgame's heels, with an expected $355 million opening weekend in North America. That's just $2.1 million shy of the 2019 movie's record, but these numbers can fluctuate, and a strong Sunday may yet lead to Spidey single-handedly taking down Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
Still, second isn't a bad place to be, especially as Sony Pictures is beating its own record, previously set by Spider-Man: No Way Home's $260.1 million in 2021. As Deadline explains, "There’s still a shot, and some rivals believe that Brand New Day after a -15% Sunday can outstrip Endgame with a $358M-$360M+ opening."
With numbers like these, it will be very interesting to see whether Avengers: Doomsday can surpass Spidey in December. That will face strong competition from Dune: Part Three and is largely relying on nostalgia to sell tickets (along with a returning Robert Downey Jr., playing Doctor Doom in place of Iron Man).
Globally, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has smashed industry expectations of a $455 million to $535 million start. The movie has made $530 million internationally over 5 days. When this is combined with current U.S. estimates, the wall-crawler is on course to kick off its worldwide run with an amazing, astonishing, and downright incredible $875 million (other reliable sources are pointing to $927 million, so we'll see what the final numbers say tomorrow).
As a reminder, Spider-Man: Brand New Day had a $225 million production budget. It will pass $1 billion in a matter of days and will soon become 2026's highest-grossing movie.
Sony Motion Pictures Chairman and CEO Rothman told the trade, "We all talked about it—Kevin Feige, Amy Pascal, and Tom Holland was very involved—it wasn’t possible to go bigger than the last movie, so we said let’s go deeper. Let’s do something different and make a character-driven story in the midst of spectacle."
"This weekend’s historic worldwide results remind me of what Clarence wrote to George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life: 'Remember, no man is a failure who has friends.' Spider-Man: Brand New Day is fundamentally a movie about friendship, about the balm of connection in all our lives, and that is resonant to audiences of all ages and all around the world."
"In troubled times, Sony is very proud to have united the world in celebrating a film about hope," he continued. "All of us at Sony Pictures are profoundly grateful to ALL the fabulous talent that produced such a landmark film, including Destin, Kevin, Amy and especially our treasured partner of over a decade, the incomparable Tom Holland."
In related news, Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima has shared his review of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and, like the vast majority of fans, he loved it:
"Watched 'Spider-Man: Brand New Day.' A lonely hero. A lonely Spidey. A lonely Peter Parker. It felt fresh, and I really enjoyed it. Until now, Spider-Man films have generally been grouped into self-contained trilogies. With each new iteration, the cast and creative team changed, allowing the franchise to reinvent itself for a new era. This time, however, while both the cast and the story continue from the previous film, everything has been reset. The film focuses on Peter, once again alone, and the loneliness and inner conflict that come with that."
"It can be seen both as the beginning of a new series and as a direct continuation of the last one. A very clever structure. In the age of social media and its immense power to amplify every opinion, striking the right balance between what filmmakers want to create and what audiences expect has become incredibly difficult. Genuine, heartfelt filmmaking is becoming increasingly challenging. Because of that, this is a film that puts the “Brand” in 'Brand New Day' to the test, as part of a blockbuster franchise that simply cannot afford to fail."
"Spider-Man: Brand New Day is everything fans could want," we wrote in our review of the movie. "Emotional, hilarious, and heartfelt, it’s an action-packed love letter to the comics and one of Spidey’s best big-screen adventures. Spider-Man has never been more amazing."
Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now playing in theaters.