LOS ANGELES, Dec. 27 (U.S.): “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has turned the best Christmas present ever, becoming the first pandemic-era film to surpass $1 billion at the global box office.
Sony’s comic book epic broke that milestone in nearly 12 days, linking 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens as the third fastest film to reach the billion dollar mark. Only 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame were faster, smashing the coveted score at 11 and 5 days, respectively.
It’s impressive that “Spider-Man: No Way Home” managed to cross $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales due to the rapidly spreading omicron variant of COVID-19. The film makes Tom Holland’s Marvel superhero adventure the only movie since 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” to cross the $1 billion global mark. No other Hollywood blockbuster has come close to box office returns in the past two years, according to Reuters.
Before Spidey’s era, MGM’s James Bond sequel “No Time to Die” that grossed $774 million globally was Hollywood’s highest-grossing film of 2021 (and pandemic). As the first movie to reach $1 billion worldwide, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has taken the land throne from another giant at the box office, China’s “The Battle at Lake Changjin” ($902 million), to officially cement its place as the film The highest-grossing film of the year worldwide. It is also worth noting that “No Way Home” has crossed that high water mark without playing in China, which is currently the world’s largest cinema market.
At the domestic box office, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” had another dominant weekend, flying high above the competition during a busy Christmas corridor.
The latest “Spider-Man” adventure raised $81 million from 4,336 North American theaters over the weekend. To put that number in perspective, only select releases of the COVID era were able to generate this kind of coin across all of their stage shows, not to mention in the second weekend of release. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has also managed to do so while several new films – “The Matrix Resurrections”, “Sing 2” and “The King’s Man”, among others – have opened on the international stage. National front (and inappropriate) ticket sales.
This brings the ten-day film’s total to $467 million at the domestic box office. That number is more than double the next highest-grossing Disney and Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” movie, which grossed $224 million domestically.
At the international box office, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” added $121.4 million over the weekend and grossed $587 million so far, taking its global revenue to $1.05 billion.
The animated musical “Sing 2” made the biggest debut among new releases, debuting at number two with $23.7 million over its traditional weekend and $41 million since Wednesday. (That number is slightly inflated because it includes $1.6 million raised from advanced shows over Thanksgiving weekend.) It’s a softer start than its predecessor, 2016’s “Sing,” which secured a total of $35 million for three and five days. of $54.9 million. However, it’s not a bad outcome for a movie aimed at parents with young children at a time when family audiences were particularly wary about going to the movies.
Directed by Garth Jennings and voiced by Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll and Bono, the film was well received by audiences who gave it a prestigious CinemaScore ‘A+’ score. Unless the pandemic has something to say, “Sing 2” should benefit from a long time on the big screen, especially since it doesn’t have much competition among family films. The original “Sing,” which centers on a swarm of killer-tube animals, opened around Christmas and was shown in theaters at the start of the new year, eventually grossing $270 million domestically and $634 million worldwide. At this rate, the sequel will have trouble replicating these results, but it should still be the de facto option for young adults during the holiday season.
“The Matrix Resurrections,” the science fiction sequel to Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow, she landed a big hit in third place. The cerebral movie significantly fell short of expectations, raising $12 million from 3,552 movie theaters over the weekend and $22.5 million since Wednesday. The fourth installment is available in the main series, as the Warner Bros. slate. entirely for 2021, simultaneously on HBO Max, although the company hasn’t introduced digital viewing metrics.
Lana Wachowski is back to direct “The Matrix Resurrections,” which stars Keanu Reeves as nifty cybercriminal Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity. The $200 million tent pole has mixed ratings (it has 67% on Rotten Tomatoes, as well as “B-” CinemaScore), which might not move the needle for ticket sales while it’s running simultaneously on a free streaming service. Extra charge.
“Right now, if you’re under 35 and go to the movies, your first choice is ‘Spider-Man,’ and your second choice is to see ‘Spider-Man’ again,” said David A. Gross, who runs the film company. Consulting Franchise Entertainment Research. “You can watch The Matrix later with someone who has HBO. This is how it is when one movie dominates the market as it is with the Spider-Man movie.”
Another newcomer, Disney and the 20th-century movie “The King’s Man,” took fourth place, raising $6.3 million from 3,180 screens over the weekend and $10 million since it opened Wednesday. Internationally, the introduction to the “The Kingsman” franchise did not lead to much. The much-delayed spy comedy starring Ralph Fiennes grossed just $6.9 million from seven overseas markets for $16.9 million worldwide.
At the domestic box office, The King’s Man beat Lionsgate’s reality sports drama “American Underdog” by a narrow margin. At number five, American Underdog has taken in $6.2 million from 2,813 locations since it opened on Christmas Day. Moviegoers embraced “Rags to Get Rich” by Kurt Warner (played by Zachary Levy), who gave it an “A+” CinemaScore score and 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Unfortunately, the film was not high on the audience’s radars and competitors could knock it out during the busy holiday period.
Strong reviews did little to boost Disney’s big-budget remake of “West Side Story,” which finished in sixth place in its third weekend of release while bringing in $2.8 million from 2,810 places. The Steven Spielberg-directed musical has grossed $23.9 million domestically since it opened earlier in December. The song and dance ownership has also seen slow progress abroad, with earnings of just $12.7 million from 46 international territories to date. Globally, “West Side Story” with a budget of $100 million made just $36.6 million.
Four weeks after a limited release, director Paul Thomas Anderson’s comedy-drama “Licorice Pizza” expanded to 786 theaters in North America on Christmas Day and took in $2.32 million on Saturdays and Sundays, enough for a seventh place finish. So far, the MGM movie Hope and Awards season has grossed $3.6 million domestically.
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