Approaching the one-week mark since its release, Spider-Man: No Way Home has already made its mark on the film industry. By breaking records within hours and reaching an audience far beyond the MCU’s pre-existing fans, the film is already thriving and even being seen as a historical cinematic event. Considering the success of previous films by Marvel Studios, such as Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame, you can leave it to Marvel to produce a film with such immense and almost instantaneous recognition. The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) is so vast and diverse, with millions of fans, that the insane amount of hype associated with their films even years prior to their release is not a surprise. If you ask me, Spider-Man: No Way Home has not only lived up to, but also surpassed the hype. And if you haven’t seen the movie yet, don’t worry – this article provides a spoiler-free outline on the film’s background in addition to some impressively mind-blowing box office stats.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is the eighth major live-action Spider-Man film based on Stan Lee’s comics. This latest installment is the third starring Tom Holland as Spider-Man/Peter Parker, following Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home, in that order. Tom Holland has also appeared as the same character in Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame. This series of Spider-Man movies also features Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Ned alongside Tom Holland. As shown in the image above, Dr. Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) is also making an appearance in Spider-Man: No Way Home. This new era of Spider-Man movies is growing increasingly popular with the current generation, and this effect has been amplified by the final movie in the Homecoming Trilogy. While it is the final of this trilogy, Marvel and Sony reportedly have more Tom Holland Spider-Man movies in the works, so there is much to look forward to for the MCU fanbase. Below is a complete list in chronological order of all Spider-Man movies released to date, including those without Tom Holland.
- Spider-Man (2002)
- Spider-Man 2 (2004)
- Spider-Man 3 (2007)
- The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)
- The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)
- Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
- Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)
- Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019)
- Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)
The first three listed have a separate storyline and star Tobey Maguire as Spider-Man. The next two also have a separate storyline and star Andrew Garfield as Spider-Man. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is an animated film in which the main Spider-Man’s alter ego is Miles Morales, not Peter Parker; this film, as of yet, is a standalone movie. And as mentioned above, the other three are also separate and star Tom Holland. However, since those three were released after the agreement between Disney, Marvel Studios, and Sony to share the film rights to Spider-Man, they are integrated into the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe. As a result, there are surrounding storylines that would be helpful to know before diving in. Strictly looking at the MCU films directly associated with Spider-Man, the optimal viewing order would be as follows.
- Captain America: Civil War
- Spider-Man: Homecoming
- Avengers: Infinity War
- Avengers: Endgame
- Spider-Man: Far From Home
- Spider-Man: No Way Home
Evidently, there is an abundance of Spider-Man content when looking at all productions. If you’re thinking about watching the Spider-Man films and getting into the whole craze, you’re in for a ride.
In general, the film industry has taken a hit during the pandemic. While streaming services may be finding success, less people are physically going to movie theatres, which hurts their box office earnings significantly. Which is why the turnout for Spider-Man: No Way Home is so marvelous. Forget COVID numbers, the immediate outcome for this film was great even by normal standards. Potentially, it could be that people had been deprived of the experience for so long that this was a perfect opportunity to return to the theatre. However, like I said, these statistics do not need to be held under the light (or rather the darkness) of the pandemic – they are pretty amazing either way.
2nd Largest Domestic Opening Weekend Ever
No movie released during COVID has hit the $100 Million mark on their opening weekend. Spider-Man: No Way Home reached $260 Million on their opening weekend, the second most in history – only behind Avengers: Endgame ($357 Million).
3rd Largest Global Debut In History
Spider-Man: No Way Home’s overall global debut reached $600 Million, only behind Avengers: Endgame ($1.2 Billion) and Avengers: Infinity War ($640 Million). In addition, this latest Spider-Man film has yet to release in China, which accounted for a significant part of the other two’s successful debuts.
Most Successful Opening In The Spider-Man Franchise’s History
The second best was Spider-Man 3 with $151 Million in 2007. It seems like the anticipation leading up to the final movies of their respective trilogies does great things for box office earnings. Keep it up, movies #1 and #2.
2nd Best Opening Day Ever
Even during COVID, Spider-Man: No Way Home’s opening day was better than the opening weekends of Spider-Man Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home. Just like all the other stats mentioned, Spider-Man: No Way Home’s single day earning of $121 Million is a pandemic-best. By now, you can guess who is number one all-time with $157 Million: Avengers: Endgame.
Those are just some of the mind-boggling stats accomplished by Spider-Man: No Way Home. The film also has the best opening in Sony Pictures history, the highest December opening (despite the month being popular for blockbuster films), and the list goes on. But perhaps what is even more impressive is that the only films to have ever done better in those categories are also Marvel Studios productions. And if you look further down the list to 3rd or 4th, the next best is often a Star Wars film, which like Marvel, is also owned by Disney. To further illustrate Marvel’s dominance, here are the top five theatrical debuts during the entire COVID-era, beginning in March 2020.
- Spider-Man: No Way Home – Marvel
- Venom: Let There Be Carnage – Marvel
- Black Widow – Marvel
- Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – Marvel
- The Eternals – Marvel
In terms of the box office, this film in addition to Marvel as a whole has been greatly successful. During the same weeks in which the Omicron variant has negatively impacted the sports world, the film industry has prospered due to Spider-Man: No Way Home. This film will probably go down as one of the most iconic movies of its time, and we’re lucky to be witnessing history as it happens.
