Listen to this article
Estimated 2 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day broke the Avengers: Endgame record for the biggest North American opening weekend with $360 million US in ticket sales from theatres in the U.S. and Canada, Sony Pictures said Monday.
Sony on Sunday projected that Spider-Man would net an estimated $355 million US in its first weekend playing in 4,487 theaters, just barely missing the 2019 Avengers: Endgame record of $357 million US. But the fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland had a stronger than expected Sunday and ultimately came in ahead.
Tom Rothman, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, said in a statement, “records are made to be broken, but we will take great pride in this one, for as long as we hold it.”
Before Avengers: Endgame, no movie had opened over $300 million US domestically. The previous record holders were Avengers: Infinity War, which launched with $257 million US in 2018, and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247 million US in 2015). In December 2021, during the pandemic, the third Holland Spider-Man movie No Way Home earned a place on the list with a $260 million US debut on its way to $1.9 billion US globally.
The high-earning combination of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey, which share actors Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal, also propelled a record weekend overall for movie theatres in the U.S. and Canada.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day challenges viewers with a new, darker tone for the franchise as the webslinger faces a crossroads of self-identity, struggling to balance his personal life with fighting crime in New York. Eli Glasner asks if the movie is trying to cram in too much, detracting from the grounded tone set throughout the film.
According to box-office analytics company Rentrak, the domestic box office overall is up more than 15 per cent from last year with over $6.2 billion US in ticket sales to date.
