While many box office releases of the last two years have struggled to remain in cinemas for more than a few weeks before being shipped out to streaming platforms,Spider-Man: No Way Homehas now been out for almost seven weeks and is continuing to climb up the list of the biggest movies ever made. As it heads toward the end of its theatrical run, the culmination of Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy is currently just over $20 million away from surpassingAvatar’s domestic box office haul of $760.5 million to become the third-highest grosser at the domestic box office ever.
Over the last couple of weeks, Spider-Man has been crawling his way up the charts both in domestic and worldwide terms, and after quickly passing the likes ofThe Dark Knight– Warner Bros. highest-grossing film ever with $534.8 million – the Marvel blockbuster now hasAvatar’s domestic total in its sights. This would put the movie behind onlyAvengers: EndgameandStar Wars: The Force Awakenswith $858.3 million and $936.6 million hauls, respectively. For a film that was almost derailed by a short fallout between Sony and Marvel back in 2019, that is probably the surest sign that no such parting of ways will be considered in the future by either party when it comes to their most lucrative Marvel asset.
Breaking box office records is nothing new for Marvel, but even by their standards,Spider-Man: No Way Homehas surpassed even the high expectations put on the movie’s shoulders when it was released back in December. Asthe first movie of the pandemic to exceed $1 billion, the film broke records on its first day on release, and took over $587 million on its opening weekend, a figure that instantly made it one of the top 5 Hollywood releases of the year. As of now,No Way Homeis the sixth-highest worldwide grossing movie of all time.
Spider-Man: No Way Home’s Success Can Help Marvel’s Upcoming Movies
Following the fan reception toSpider-Man: No Way Home, the next MCU movie,Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, is believed to have undergone re-shoots that included expanding the roster of cameos in the film, which will push further into the multiverse than its predecessor, and will no doubt benefit from the stratospheric performance ofNo Way Home. As much of Marvel’s upcoming phase has deep roots in the multiverse or features returning heroes such as Thor, and Guardians of the Galaxy, the current wave of success is only going to keep Marvel at the top of their game.
A few years ago, the momentum of MCU releases was going strong, but the year-long absence caused by the Covid pandemic meant that a slow build-up was required once cinemas opened up in mid-2021. WhileBlack Widow’sperformance was impacted by the dual release on Disney+,Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten RingsandEternalsboth dealt with brand new characters to the MCU and didn’t have the pull to get audiences back into theaters, but Spider-Man’s arrival at the end of the year proved that well-known characters can certainly get audiences out in volumes. With the next five Marvel movies bringing back well-known heroes, Marvel Studios is in a stronger position than ever to keep its place at the top.
