A box office record held for over a decade has finally been broken. And we can safely say that just a few months ago, absolutely no one saw this coming. According to Variety, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now the highest earning film at the domestic box office. Having now earned $936.773 million after 47 days in theaters, it has beat Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which earned $936 million total. Of course, globally, Brand New Day has already earned a staggering $2.45 billion, making it the third highest grossing film worldwide of all time. Lucasfilm has already put out a message of congratulations to Sony and the Spider-Man team.
A few months ago, no one would have believed Brand New Day had a shot at becoming the #1 domestic movie of all time. Box office power had slowed considerably since the pandemic. Especially as shorter theatrical windows cut into how long a movie played in theaters. Not only that, but Brand New Day was the fourth Tom Holland Spider-Man movie and ninth overall. Without the added bonus of starring alongside the two other Spider-Man actors, few believed Brand New Day could outperform No Way Home. And beating the sequel to Return of the Jedi, which saw the return of Luke, Han, and Leia after decades? It seemed an impossible task. But here we are.
Of course, once you start the whole “adjusted for inflation” game, it’s likely that The Force Awakens sold more tickets. Brand New Day may not beat that record anytime soon. In fact, if we’re adjusting for inflation, neither Brand New Day nor The Force Awakens are even in the top five. But hey, let’s not try to dim Spidey’s light. This is a big day for Tom Holland, Zendaya, and Destin Daniel Cretton.
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Between Brand New Day and The Odyssey, the theatrical moviegoing experience, once thought on its last legs post-pandemic, is definitely back. Now, let’s see if BND can become the first film to crack $1 billion domestic. We suggest releasing a longer cut, maybe with Rosario Dawson’s and other scenes inserted back in, to get it past that milestone. Anything is possible. We’re sure Sony is already at least considering it. We will have to wait and see.