Spider-Man: No Way Home becomes the first pandemic-era movie to cross US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) at the global box office.
It’s impressive that Spider-Man: No Way Home managed to blow past US$1 billion in ticket sales worldwide given the rapidly spreading omicron variant of Covid-19. It’s also notable that No Way Home surpassed that high-watermark without playing in China, which is currently the world’s biggest moviegoing market.
Sony’s comic-book epic has eclipsed that milestone in a near-record 12 days, tying with 2015′s Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the third-fastest film to reach the billion-dollar benchmark. Only 2018′s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019′s Avengers: Endgame were quicker, smashing the coveted tally in 11 and five days, respectively.
The co-production between Sony and Disney collected US$81 million from 4,336 North American theaters over the weekend. The Matrix Resurrections, the Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s sci-fi sequel, landed with a thud in third place. The cerebral film landed significantly below expectations, scraping together US$12 million from 3,552 cinemas over the weekend and US$22.5 million since Wednesday. The fourth installment in the seminal series, like Warner Bros. entire 2021 slate, is available simultaneously on HBO Max, though the company didn’t provide digital viewership metrics.
The newest Spider-Man adventure collected US$81-million from 4,336 North American theatres over the weekend. To put that figure in perspective, only select COVID-era releases have managed to generate that kind of coinage in their entire theatrical runs, much less in their second weekend of release. Spider-Man: No Way Home also managed to do so at a time when several new movies – The Matrix Resurrections, Sing 2 and The King’s Man, among others – opened nationwide to decent (and not-so-decent) ticket sales.
Universal’s Sing 2 came in second place with an estimated US$23.8 million, while Warner Bros.' The Matrix Resurrections grossed US$12 million to take third place.