North American movie theaters just posted the best three-day weekend in box office history, and SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY did most of the heavy lifting.
“Moviegoers across generations made this weekend one for the record books,” said Michael O’Leary, President and CEO of Cinema United, in a statement celebrating the milestone. “Our industry is at its best when there is something for everyone to see on the big screen, and this year we are seeing what happens when the innovation and creativity on display in amazing movie theatres across the country and around the world is combined with a great slate of films.”
Sony and Marvel Studios’ latest web-slinging sequel pulled in an estimated $355 million domestically over its opening weekend, according to Boxoffice Pro, landing just shy of AVENGERS: ENDGAME’s all-time opening record of $357.1 million from 2019. Friday alone brought in $168 million, breaking ENDGAME’s single-day record of $157.4 million, according to ABC News. Sony called it the studio’s biggest opening weekend ever.
Combined with a strong third weekend from Universal’s THE ODYSSEY, ticket sales across the whole industry hit $429.2 million, the largest three-day domestic frame ever recorded and a jump of more than 112 percent over the same weekend last year, per Boxoffice Pro. The previous industry record, $402 million, also belonged to ENDGAME’s opening weekend back in April 2019. Christopher Nolan’s THE ODYSSEY added $51 million in its third week, pushing its domestic total past $395 million.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY didn’t stop at the border, either. The movie added $572 million overseas, including $121 million in China, for a $927 million global debut, per Boxoffice Pro — the second-best worldwide opening ever, trailing only ENDGAME’s $1.22 billion launch.
Related: SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY
Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige had a simple explanation for the response.
“This is a truly phenomenal opening, and we are grateful to audiences everywhere for coming out and experiencing our movie the way it was meant to be seen,” Feige said in a statement. “This debut reflects the enduring power of Marvel’s characters, and the connection they continue to have with fans around the world — and, as audiences saw, it sets up exciting things to come.”
The record weekend also pushed 2026’s domestic box office total past $6 billion for the year, according to Deadline, a milestone this summer’s slate hit well ahead of pace thanks largely to SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY and THE ODYSSEY.
Audiences clearly liked what they saw on screen, too. SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY holds a 90% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, a 98% audience score and an A CinemaScore — strong marks for a franchise entry Tom Holland himself called “the darkest chapter” of Peter Parker’s life at a July press conference Movieguide® covered.
Movieguide®’s own review found more going on beneath the web-slinging than the box office math suggests. Peter Parker risks his life to save someone else’s and pushes a villain toward repentance instead of revenge, turning him, in Movieguide®’s words, into “a Christ figure” across the movie’s two-and-a-half-hour runtime. That redemptive arc comes with a caveat, though: Movieguide® counted nearly 40 instances of coarse language, mostly from Jon Bernthal’s Punisher, and advised “extreme caution” for family viewing despite the movie’s strong moral throughline.
Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton, SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY reunites Holland with Zendaya and Jacob Batalon following 2021’s SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME, which grossed nearly $1.9 billion worldwide. Whether the new movie can match that lifetime haul remains to be seen. Its opening weekend, though, has already earned SPIDER-MAM a permanent line in Hollywood’s record book, right next to the AVENGERS.
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