Refresh for more….Here it is, once again, the biggest opening of the year as Sony/Marvel Studios‘ Spider-Man: Brand New Day looks to eradicate all superhero fatigue with an estimated $465M global opening in what is a 99% foreign footprint, which for Sony would stand as their second biggest reported global opening ever after their previous Tom Holland and Zendaya starring Spider-Man: No Way Home which began with an awesome $600.5M worldwide start and ahead of 2003’s Spider-Man 3‘s $381.6M. No Way Home stands as the biggest opening post Covid, in addition, it’s the third biggest opening ever at the worldwide B.O. after 2019’s Avengers: Endgame ($1.22B) and 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War ($640.5M).
Among all Post Covid global bows, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is looking to rank third behind No Way Home and 2025’s Zooptopia 2 ($560.3M WW), and ahead of 2022’s Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($452M WW), 2024’s Deadpool & Wolverine ($444.7M WW), 2023’s Avatar: The Way of Water ($441.7M WW) and China animated sequel Ne Zha 2 ($431.2M WW).
So many asterisks to the projection: There’s a lot of bullishness out there from rivals and the industry that the $225M net production could do significantly more than what’s out there. Word is that North American presales stand at $80M, which is around the $78M that Spider-Man: No Way Home logged before its start. NRG is seeing a $195M domestic opening, which would still stand as the best of 2026, ahead of Disney/Pixar’s Toy Story 5 ($159.6M), but others believe the number is closer to $250M.
With an international forecast is around $270M, the comp for foreign here is Deadpool & Wolverine which bowed to a reported $233.3M.
Why all the caution? Different circumstances, different times. Five years ago when No Way Home hit, it was when many moviegoers were looking to head back to the cinemas as Covid appeared to be easing (despite a spike of the Omicron strain following the sequel’s opening). It’s not a three Spider-mans kind of film. Sony and Marvel didn’t go bigger, rather they went deeper with a higher stakes love story and erratic, emotional villain with Shang-Chi filmmaker Destin Daniel Cretton taking over the directing reigns from Spider-Man Holland franchise director Jon Watts. Brand New Day currently has a Rotten Tomotoes critics score of 89% certified fresh at the time of this post, just under No Way Home‘s 93%. Fans already have their tickets, but will non-frequent moviegoers make a beeline this weekend or wait it out? It’s not a once-in-a-generation sequel ala 2015’s Force Awakens (which came out ten years after the previous Star Wars movie, Revenge of the Sith). Also, there’s the whole mis-forecasting of $100M+ openings. When it’s this big, sometimes box office sources over-project despite the film filing a spectacular start anyway.
Just like it’s suppose to be the biggest opening YTD stateside, Brand New Day should see 2026 record starts in most of Europe and Latin America. Zendaya and Holland have been on a global photo-taking tour in Paris, Italy and have been doing double duty in tub-thumping their other movie, The Odyssey, which has already cleared $600M worldwide.
China didn’t play No Way Home, but did play the other Holland movies Homecoming
In terms of the major territories rollout, tomorrow Wednesday will see the webslinger hitting Argentina, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, Korea, Italy, France, and the UK (start time after 7 30pm follow the the London premiere there). Peter Parker’s alter-ego lands in Australia, India and Saudi Arabia on Thursday with Japan going on Friday.
More…
