Spider-Man No Way Home has thwarted any doubts that the pandemic or streaming can ruin cinema moviegoing, as it quickly became Sony Pictures most financially successful film to date.
The awesome arachnid has managed to accomplish the first pandemic-era film to reach $1B, a feat not seen since Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in December 2019. Whereas Rise of Skywalker took 91 days to achieve this, the web slinging wall crawler reached this in less than 10.
Other heavy hitting box office franchise films such as No Time To Die ($774,034,007), Fast and Furious 9 ($726,229,501), and previous Marvel movies Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings ($432,233,010) and Eternals ($401,970,519) have seen nowhere near as much success as No Way Home.
Spider-Man: No Way Home has already surpassed Sony’s earlier top grossing film and previous instalment, Spider-Man: Far From Home, having grossed almost $30 million more globally. This milestone is particularly impressive after only two weeks of global release, disruption from the Christmas period, and COVID-19 pandemic fears.
When compared against other films in the pantheon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: No Way Home is in a sensational position. Currently, Spidey sits in sixth place behind each Avengers instalment and Black Panther in fifth.
However, Spider-Man: No Way Home broke records with it's first trailer back in September - becoming the most viewed movie trailer in 24 hours with 355.5 million views across online platforms on it's first day. The previous record holder was, of course, Avengers: Endgame with 289 million views on it's first day.
No Way Home seems to be defying all expectations of pandemic cinema thus far. Various COVID-19 related factors have contributed to a significant decline in cinemagoers, meaning almost all new releases have struggled to meet the pre-pandemic box office levels.
Spider-Man: No Way Home stars Tom Holland as the friendly neighbourhood hero, Spider-Man. After his identity is revealed to the world by Mysterio (Jake Gyllenhaal) in Spider-Man: Far From Home, Peter Parker seeks the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) to try to fix things. When their spell goes wrong, chaos ensues as villains invade from alternate universes, and Peter must discover what it truly means to be Spider-Man.
Alongside Tom Holland, Spider-Man: No Way Home stars: Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Benedict Cumberbatch, Jon Favreau, Tony Revolori, and Benedict Wong. In addition to this, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, Jamie Foxx, Rhys Ifans, and Thomas Haden Church all reprise their roles as the former Spider-Man villains from their earlier films.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is still in cinemas across the UK.