RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” made box office history in its first weekend in theaters. The Sony-released superhero movie became the second biggest North American opening ever with an astonishing $355 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. It was just a few million shy of “Avengers: Endgame,” which debuted to $357 million in 2019.
Tom Holland’s run as the comic book webslinger has been a mighty one. “No Way Home,” his third standalone Spider-Man movie, made over $1.9 billion worldwide to become the eighth highest earning movie of all time, not accounting for inflation. It was also the first movie since the beginning of pandemic to cross the $1 billion mark.
But the triumph of “Brand New Day” also comes on the heels of another major movie featuring Holland and Zendaya: Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” which slid to second place in its third weekend in theaters with $51 million.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” started strong, with a record $168 million opening day from 4,487 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, besting “Avenger: Endgame’s” $157 million Friday. The studio predicted it would lead to a $325 million opening weekend, which would still have beaten the second-place record. It takes the place of “Spider-Man: No Way Home” which opened to $260 million in December 2021. In the realm of best opening weekends in North America, they’re followed by “Avengers: Infinity War” ($257 million in 2018) and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” ($247 million in 2015).
Expectations were always high for “Brand New Day,” which was directed by Destin Daniel Cretton and cost a reported $225 million to produce, not including marketing expenses. But there were worries it wouldn’t attract the same level of mass audience enthusiasm as its predecessor which integrated past Peter Parker actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield into the mix. In reality, interest was higher than ever. “Brand New Day” also received strong reviews from critics and audiences. It currently has a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes; Audiences gave it an “A” CinemaScore and a five-star rating on PostTrak.
Ticket buyers were predominately male (about 61%) and many were on the younger side, with slightly more than half the audience under the age of 25, according to PostTrak exit polls. The biggest group was between the ages of 18 and 24, which made up 36% of the audience; 27% were between the ages of 25 and 34.
Cries about the death of the superhero movie have been looming since “Endgame” with more than a few high-profile flops in the years since, including several from the once-impenetrable Marvel Studios. Still, when they work, they really work, most notably with “No Way Home” and “Deadpool & Wolverine,” which made over $1.3 billion.
This year has also seen a resurgence of moviegoing from younger audiences, who have made hits out of movies like “Obsession,” “Backrooms” and “The Drama,” which also starred Zendaya.
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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