LOS ANGELES, Aug 3 – “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has swung to the top of the North American box office, delivering a record-breaking opening weekend of $360 million in ticket sales across the United States and Canada and narrowly surpassing the previous benchmark set by “Avengers: Endgame” in 2019.
The latest Spider-Man adventure, starring Tom Holland as Peter Parker, initially appeared likely to fall just short of the record. Sony Pictures had estimated on Sunday that the film would finish its first weekend with roughly $355 million, compared with the $357 million opening posted by “Avengers: Endgame.” Stronger-than-expected ticket sales on Sunday pushed the final figure higher, giving the Spider-Man film the biggest domestic opening in cinema history, before adjusting for inflation.
The film also made a major impact internationally, collecting approximately $932 million worldwide during its opening weekend. That places its global debut second among the biggest opening weekends ever recorded, although “Avengers: Endgame” remains ahead when historical ticket prices are adjusted for inflation.
The achievement marks another major milestone for the Spider-Man franchise and demonstrates the continuing strength of the character at a time when Hollywood has been closely watching whether audiences are tiring of superhero movies.
Spider-Man Surges Past Marvel’s Previous Domestic Record
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is Holland’s fourth appearance as the web-slinging hero. The movie follows Peter Parker as he attempts to navigate a world in which people have forgotten that he is Spider-Man. Alongside his fight against crime, Parker is forced to confront isolation, lost connections and the difficulty of rebuilding his personal life.
Zendaya returns as MJ, Parker’s love interest, while Jon Bernthal also appears in the film. The combination of familiar characters and a more personal story appears to have helped the movie connect with audiences beyond traditional superhero fans.
Tom Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group, said the film’s central message about friendship and human connection has resonated with audiences.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is fundamentally a movie about friendship and the importance of connection in people’s lives, Rothman said, describing those themes as relevant to audiences of different ages and backgrounds.
The film’s $360 million domestic opening represents a narrow but significant victory over “Avengers: Endgame,” which opened to $357 million in the United States and Canada in 2019. Before “Endgame,” no film had managed to cross the $300 million threshold in its opening weekend.
“Avengers: Infinity War” previously held the domestic opening record with approximately $257 million in 2018, while “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” opened with about $247 million in 2015.
Another major Spider-Man success came during the pandemic era. “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” also starring Holland, opened with around $260 million in North America in December 2021. The film eventually generated about $1.9 billion worldwide.
The latest film’s performance also adds another chapter to Spider-Man’s unusually durable presence in the global movie business. Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Rentrak, said the franchise is nearing $10 billion in worldwide theatrical revenue on an unadjusted basis, highlighting the character’s long-term commercial appeal.
The movie has also received strong audience and critical reactions. “Brand New Day” holds a 90% rating from critics and a 98% audience approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, according to the figures provided for the film’s opening period.
Those numbers are particularly significant for a superhero franchise operating in a market where audience enthusiasm for comic-book adaptations has become less predictable. While some recent superhero releases have struggled to generate the same level of excitement seen during the genre’s strongest years, Spider-Man continues to attract large audiences.
Strong Summer Box Office Gives Theaters Another Boost
The success of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has arrived during an increasingly strong summer movie season. The film’s opening was accompanied by another major release, Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” helping create an exceptionally strong weekend for cinemas in the United States and Canada.
Holland, Zendaya and Bernthal appear in both productions, giving audiences additional opportunities to see the actors across two high-profile films. Dergarabedian said the success of “The Odyssey” also helped build exposure for “Spider-Man: Brand New Day,” because moviegoers watching Nolan’s film were repeatedly shown promotional material for the Spider-Man release.
The analyst described the combination of the two movies as contributing to what he characterized as the biggest domestic weekend in movie theater history.
The strength of the two films is another indication that audiences are still willing to return to cinemas for major theatrical releases when studios offer movies with broad appeal and significant star power.
Greg Durkin, founder and chief executive of entertainment research firm Enact Insight, pointed to the emotional themes in “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” as one possible reason for its appeal, particularly among younger viewers.
Durkin said the movie’s focus on loneliness, isolation, friendship and overcoming personal difficulties could have a particular connection with members of Generation Z. He also linked those themes to broader social challenges affecting young people, including the lingering effects of the pandemic and a growing sense of social isolation.
The film’s commercial performance therefore goes beyond another superhero opening record. It provides Hollywood with evidence that a familiar comic-book character can still produce an enormous theatrical event when the story combines established characters with themes that audiences recognize from their own lives.
The record comes despite the wider domestic movie market continuing to face challenges compared with the period before the COVID-19 pandemic. Rentrak data showed that the North American box office was running more than 15% ahead of the previous year, with more than $6.2 billion in ticket sales recorded so far in 2026. However, the market remained below its pre-pandemic level, with year-to-date receipts still about 16% lower than the comparable period in 2019.
That gap highlights the importance of blockbuster releases to the recovery of the theatrical business. Films such as “Toy Story 5,” “The Odyssey” and now “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” have provided major boosts during the summer season.
For Sony Pictures, the record-setting opening represents a significant commercial victory. For the wider movie industry, it offers a more encouraging message: audiences may not be abandoning superhero films altogether, but they appear increasingly selective about which major releases are worth seeing on the big screen.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has now claimed the domestic opening record without adjusting for inflation, taking the title from “Avengers: Endgame.” When inflation is taken into account, however, “Endgame” remains the larger opening, with its 2019 domestic debut equivalent to a considerably higher figure in today’s dollars.
The latest Spider-Man film nevertheless enters the record books with one of the strongest starts in cinema history, giving Hollywood another blockbuster capable of drawing millions of people into theaters around the world.