Spider-Man fans jammed theatres across North America, shattering the opening-weekend record for a movie released during the pandemic, even as Covid surged in many places.
Spider-Man: No Way Home generated $260.1m (R4.1bn) in US and Canada ticket sales in its debut, Comscore said this week.
The film, made by Sony Group with Walt Disney’s Marvel division, recorded the second-highest domestic opening weekend ever, beating Boxoffice Pro’s forecast of $224m, as well as Sony’s own projections.
Avengers: Endgame, another Marvel film released in 2019, had the biggest opening weekend in movie history, with sales of $357.1m in North America.
International theatres brought in an additional $340.8m for Spider-Man, Sony said. Among individual markets, it was the highest opening ever in Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
Cinemas have longed for a blockbuster capable of reaching a massive audience — and No Way Home delivered. The previous biggest North American debut of pandemic times was the $90m opening achieved almost three months ago by Venom: Let There Be Carnage.
By comparison, six films topped $100m in their first weekends in 2019.
The sales were enough to instantly make No Way Home the top-grossing film released domestically this year. Sony relied on a core demographic of 18-to-34-year-old fans who accounted for 62% of tickets sold.
Unlike many other movies released during the pandemic, No Way Home was available only in theatres.
The results “reaffirm the unmatched cultural impact that exclusive theatrical films can have”, said Sony’s Motion Picture Group chair Tom Rothman.
Theatre chains hope the success portends a strong 2022, when a number of films delayed by the pandemic are scheduled for release, including new instalments of Top Gun and Jurassic World.
But the weekend’s results may prove to be a one-off success. The other major film opening, Nightmare Alley from Disney’s Searchlight division, grossed just $3m in its domestic debut.
Bloomberg
