'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Smashes Pandemic-Era Records
by EG
Spider-Man: No Way Home blasted pandemic-era box office records on its opening weekend, and its debut ticket sales were historically big even by the measurements we used to use before the pandemic. In fact, the latest Marvek movie had the third-biggest opening weekend of all time domestically. Read on for details.
Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home spun a record-breaking web in its box office debut, grossing $253 million from 4,336 theaters to secure the third-biggest domestic opening of all time at the box office despite growing worries over the COVID-19 omicron variant.
Overseas — where the new variant is even more of a concern in certain markets, and particularly in Europe — the movie also made history, grossing $334.2 million for a global total of $587.2 million (without China). That’s the No. 3 global opening ever, not adjusted for inflation.
“This weekend’s historic results, from all over the world and in the face of many challenges, reaffirm the unmatched cultural impact that exclusive theatrical films can have when they are made and marketed with vision and resolve,” says Sony Motion Picture Group chair-CEO Tom Rothman, who has remained a huge proponent of an exclusive theatrical release.
Spider-Man: No Way Home set numerous other records as moviegoing returned to pre-pandemic levels for the first time in a defining moment for the box office recovery. Hollywood, however, would feel much better if the wealth were being spread around.
Even as No Way Home prospered, Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley became the latest adult-skewing title to sorely disappoint, with a fifth-place weekend opening of $3 million range despite a well-known director and A-list cast. And Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story tumbled a steep 67 percent in its second weekend, furthering the narrative that midrange movies and adult-skewing films are an endangered species theatrically amid the rise of streaming.
No Way Home is the first film in the COVID-19 era to zoom past $100 million in its domestic launch (until now, the biggest start was just $90 million). There’s more: The tentpole has already grossed more than any pandemic-era release has earned in its entire run domestically, a list topped by Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($224.5 million).
The Sony and Marvel movie was buoyed by a coveted A+ CinemaScore, moviegoers between ages 18 and 34 and glowing exit scores, including a definite recommend score of 90 percent. (Rivals say the exits are “unreal.”) Spider-Man also attracted an ethnically perse audience and did huge business in Imax theaters, which turned in $36.2 million globally, the No. 6 showing of all time in terms of Imax weekend openings.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.