‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ Sets All-Time Opening Day Record With $168 Million
Sony/Marvel Studios’ “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is turning the box office clock back to 2019 with a historic Friday at the box office, earning a $168 million domestic opening day — including $72 million from previews — that passes the $157 million opening day record held by “Avengers: Endgame.”
That new record does have some caveats. The $72 million preview total, also a record, included Wednesday early access screenings held for Prime Video subscribers while Thursday screenings started at noon compared to 6 PM for “Endgame,” meaning more screenings to satisfy demand.
Still, the fact that “Brand New Day” has already cracked the top 10 highest grossing North American releases after roughly 36 hours of screenings shows how impervious Spider-Man is to any sort of superhero fatigue plaguing Marvel at the multiplex, and it puts the all-time opening weekend record of $357 million, also held by “Endgame,” into play.
It will come down to walk-up traffic on Sunday to determine whether “Brand New Day” breaks that record. Currently, Sony is projecting that the film will fall just short of the record with a still spectacular $325 million domestic opening weekend while industry estimates have it just beating “Endgame” with $358 million.
“Endgame” will hold on to the global opening weekend record of $1.22 billion as “Brand New Day” is currently estimated for a worldwide launch of approximately $875-925 million.
But with the second highest global start of all time and wildly strong early audience scores that include 98% on Rotten Tomatoes and an A on CinemaScore, “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has all the momentum it needs plow through a relatively light August release slate and become the eighth film to reach $2 billion worldwide before inflation adjustment.
Meanwhile, Universal/Syncopy’s “The Odyssey” is holding quite well in its third weekend even with the arrival of such a huge competitor, as it is set to earn $51 million domestically for a 43% drop from its $90 million second weekend. That gives the film a $395 million three-weekend domestic total, the same as “Top Gun: Maverick” back in 2022.
If “The Odyssey” maintains the same domestic pace as “Top Gun: Maverick,” it will be on pace to gross $1.5 billion worldwide and become the highest grossing R-rated film of all time before inflation adjustment.
With these two wildly popular films performing so strongly, this weekend’s overall gross total is set to reach $434 million, passing the $402 million overall total recorded on the opening weekend of “Avengers: Endgame” to become the biggest weekend of business in the history of the U.S/Canada box office and push annual domestic grosses past the $6 billion mark.
