Turns out Spider-Man didn’t need the high ground to defeat Star Wars after all. After 47 days of swinging through cinemas, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has officially overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing movie of all time at the North American box office, ending a record that stood for more than a decade.
Tom Holland’s fourth solo outing as Peter Parker has now earned US$936.773 million in North America, edging past the US$936 million amassed by The Force Awakens. J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars sequel had held onto the crown since its release in December 2015, with no other blockbuster managing to knock it from the top spot… until now.
Inflation naturally complicates any comparison between films released 11 years apart, but Brand New Day has still assembled an extraordinary list of box-office records during its theatrical run. Destin Daniel Cretton’s film opened to US$360 million domestically, becoming only the second movie to cross US$300 million during its opening weekend after Avengers: Endgame debuted with US$357.1 million in 2019.
Records continued falling from there. Brand New Day became the fastest film to cross every US$100 million milestone between US$400 million and US$900 million, hitting US$400 million after four days, US$500 million after seven, US$600 million after nine, US$700 million after 13, US$800 million after 19 and US$900 million after 36. It also remained North America’s number-one movie for six consecutive weekends.
Outside North America, Spidey has been doing equally spectacular business. With approximately US$2.45 billion worldwide, Brand New Day now stands as the third-highest-grossing film globally, behind Avatar at US$2.9 billion and Avengers: Endgame at US$2.7 billion. Its total places it ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water at US$2.3 billion and Titanic at US$2.2 billion.
Cretton’s sequel picks up years after Spider-Man: No Way Home, following Peter as he struggles with the consequences of Doctor Strange’s spell that erased everyone’s memories of him. Zendaya returns as MJ alongside Jacob Batalon, while Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo round out the cast.
Natalie is a big fan of anything related to movies, TV shows, and anime — you name it. When she’s not reading or being a dedicated cinephile, she’s probably playing gacha and tabletop games, or daydreaming of Caleb from Love and Deepspace.
Kevin Low
Si Jia
