Sony Pictures announced on Monday that “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” set a new North American opening weekend record, surpassing “Avengers: Endgame” with $360 million in ticket sales from theaters in the U.S. and Canada. Initially projected to earn $355 million in its first weekend across 4,487 theaters, the fourth installment of the Spider-Man series, starring Tom Holland, exceeded expectations with a strong performance on Sunday, ultimately surpassing the 2019 record set by “Avengers: Endgame.”
Tom Rothman, the chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, expressed pride in the achievement, stating, “records are made to be broken, but we will take great pride in this one, for as long as we hold it.” Prior to “Avengers: Endgame,” no film had surpassed $300 million domestically in its opening weekend, with previous record-holders being “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018 with $257 million and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” in 2015 with $247 million. In December 2021, amidst the pandemic, the third Spider-Man movie starring Holland, “No Way Home,” debuted with $260 million in the U.S. on its way to a global total of $1.9 billion.
The successful combination of “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey,” both featuring actors Holland, Zendaya, and Jon Bernthal, contributed to a record-setting weekend for movie theaters in the U.S. and Canada. According to Rentrak, a box-office analytics company, the domestic box office has seen a more than 15% increase compared to the previous year, reaching over $6.2 billion in ticket sales to date.