"Spider-Man: No Way Home" has become the first movie released during the coronavirus pandemic to break $1 billion in global sales at the box office. In just 12 days on the silver screen, Sony's
"What this represents is quite mind-boggling," senior media analyst at Comscore, Paul Dergarabedian, told CNN Business. "These numbers would be very impressive in the pre-pandemic era, but for 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' to sprint to a billion dollars in this marketplace is really hard to wrap your mind around.
The last move to break the one-billion-dollar mark at the box office was "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" in 2019. Since then, no other American-made movie has even come close to making a billion dollars. The highest-grossing Hollywood movie in 2021 prior to the release of Spider-Man was MGM's "No Time to Die," a James Bond movie that made $774 million globally.
China's "The Battle at Lake Changjin" brought in $902 million, making it the highest-grossing movie worldwide prior to Spider-Man's release. Spider-Man is not playing in theaters in China, which currently holds the top spot in the world for the movie-going market.
Spider-Man managed to bring in high numbers of viewers despite competition from other Christmas-release films. "The Matrix Resurrections," "Sing 2," and "The King's Man" were all playing in theaters at the same time.
"Right now, if you're under 35 and going to the movies, your first choice is 'Spider-Man,' and your second choice is seeing 'Spider-Man' again," movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research operator, David A. Gross, said.
After bringing in $260 million in North America during its first weekend, sales for Spider-Man stayed high for longer than most pandemic-era movies. During the holiday weekend alone, the movie's second weekend at the box office, Spider-Man brought in more money than most other coronavirus-era movies brought in during their entire theatrical runs. Worldwide, the comic-book movie has made $1.05 billion, including well over $700 million at the international box office.
After Spider-Man, the next most successful holiday-release film was "Sing 2", created by Universal and Illumination studios. The kids' movie saw $23.7 million during the holiday weekend, compared to its 2016 predecessor's three-day total of $35 million. The movie has been received positively, earning an audience score of "A+" on CinemaScore. While "Sing" brought in $634 million worldwide, "Sing 2" is expected to struggle to match its predecessor's sales.
Warner Bros.
"You can watch 'The Matrix' later with someone who has HBO. That's how it is when a single movie is dominating the market the way 'Spider-Man' is," Gross said.
Finally, Disney
Disney's "West Side Story" remake was also available for holiday viewing but was entering its third weekend at the box office. Still, the film brought in $2.8 million domestically over the weekend. Globally, the film has made only $36.6 million, far below its $100 million budget.
