Spider-Man: No Way Home Thursday Box Office Shatters Records

By Russ Burlingame

Spider-Man: No Way Home swung into theaters last night and webbed up an incredible $50 million in Thursday preview ticket sales, which makes the film the third- or fourth-highest-grossing Thursday movie of all time, depending on the exact numbers. Top of the list is Avengers: Endgame and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and the current #3 is Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith earned $50,013,859 in its preview screenings, making both it and Spider-Man: No Way Home far ahead of the #4 (now #5), Matrix Reloaded, was took in $37,508,303. While the numbers are objectively huge, it's worth noting that some theaters started screening the movie much earlier on Thursday -- as early as noon -- than the usual 7 p.m. or 10 p.m. previews. That could potentially depress sales for one or more days this weekend, since so many people had a chance to get in early.

Since the pandemic began, no movie has earned more than $100 million in its opening weekend -- the closest is the Spider-Man spinoff Venom: Let There Be Carnage, which opened at $90 million. That makes it even more shocking that No Way Home is poised to cruise easily past that number. Current projections have it making around $150 million in its opening weekend at the domestic box office alone.

Responses to the film have been almost universally positive (it opened with an early Rotten Tomatoes store of 100%), which suggests it's likely to have a significant number of return viewers. That said, opening weekend is going to be disproportionately high because, like Avengers: Endgame, there is a sense that spoilers will be impossible to miss, so people who are passionate about the franchise are likely to feel pressured to see it as quickly as possible.

In Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker (Tom Holland) will square off against villains from the franchise's past -- but not against ones he has seen before. On December 17th, Spider-Man will battle the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man), Dr. Octopus (Alfred Molina, Spider-Man 2), Electro (Jamie Foxx, The Amazing Spider-Man 2), and more.   

Following the events of Avengers: Endgame, Loki, and What If...?, Marvel's multiverse seems to be more wide open than ever. Following the commercial success of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, there's hardly a more commonsense character for Marvel to begin exploring its infinite Earths with. 

Starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jamie Foxx, Alfred Molina, and Benedict Cumberbatch, Sony and Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: No Way Home is scheduled to open in theaters on December 17.

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