It’s official, Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is the second-highest opening EVER at the domestic box office with $260M, overtaking Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War‘s $257.698M.
Sony updated their international box office, which takes the film starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, and other huge stars to $340.8M abroad, yielding a $600.8M global debut, still the third-highest ever behind Avengers: End Game ($1.22 billion) and Avengers: Infinity War ($640.5M).
Even with the Omicron variant causing new restrictions, Spider-Man fans are running to the theaters to catch the latest comic book film in all its glory on the big screen. When tickets initially went on sale, ticketing sites and apps crashed and if you went to the movies this weekend to see Tom Holland don the suit and break the multiverse, in more ways than one, you sat in crowded theaters in order to avoid others from spoiling the incredible film.
In terms of recent box office returns, it took only one day for the film to become the highest-grossing opening of any movie during the pandemic. It took only one weekend for No Way Home to become the highest grossing film of 2021. The opening was also the best for the month of December, the Spider-Man franchise and for Sony Pictures.
In second place was Disney’s Encanto, the animated musical with songs from Lin-Manuel Miranda that has been in theaters for four weeks, since Thanksgiving weekend, earning $6.5 million.
Steven Spielberg’s struggling West Side Story brought in $3.4 million, a 68 percent drop from the past week from #1 to #3, suggesting that word of mouth is helping the well-reviewed musical remake of the 1961 classic which explores forbidden love and the rivalry between the Jets and the Sharks, two teenage street gangs of different ethnic backgrounds.
Ghostbusters: Afterlife, is still holding strong to the top 10 list after its pre-Thanksgiving release, and is currently in fourth place after 5 weeks in theaters.
Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley earning $2.9 million in its first week at the box office takes 5th place in the top ten list, boasting Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, and No Way Home’s Willem Defoe. del Toro’s neo-noir psychological thriller film is a re-imagining of a 1947 movie about a con man moving his way through a carnival and society has been at the center of Oscar buzz already.
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MGM’s House of Gucci, directed by Ridley Scott, has crossed the $100M threshold worldwide and is still in the top ten list, dropping from 4th place, down to 6th in its 4th week in theaters.
Marvel’s Eternals has been in theaters over 7 weeks and is still maintaining a position on the top ten list, just dropping from 5th place to 7th as the film closes in on earning $400 million, worldwide.
Breaking into the top 10 at #8 is Hamsini Entertainment’s Pushpa: The Rise at 400 theaters in 112 markets (in Telugu, Tamil and Hindi). The near-3 hour movie from filmmaker Sukumar follows Pushpa Raj, a lorry driver in Seshachalam forests of South India. The movie is set in the backdrop of red sandalwood smuggling, which is endemic to South-Eastern Ghats (mountain range) of India. Decent numbers in NYC, Dallas, San Francisco, Boston, DC and Seattle are putting Pushpa at $1.32M for the weekend and a theater average of 3,3K.
Clifford the Big Red Dog also seems to be “eternally” on the top ten list and is slipping to the bottom, taking the #9 after 6 weeks in theaters, as well as Paramount+, while Sony’s Resident Evil: Raccoon City rounds out the top ten list at #10 after 4 weeks in theaters.
1. Spider-Man: No Way Home (Sony) NEW – Cinemascore: A+; Metacritic: 72; Est. budget: $200 million
$253,000,000 in 4,336 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $58,349; Cumulative: $253,000,000
2. Encanto (Disney) Week 4; Last weekend #2
$6,528,000 (-35%) in 3,525 (-225) theaters; PTA: $1,852; Cumulative: $81,545,000
3. West Side Story (Disney) Week 2; Last weekend #1
$3,416,000 (-68%) in 2,820 (no change) theaters; PTA: $1,211; Cumulative: $17,982,000
4. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony) Week 5; Last weekend #3
$3,400,000 (-52%) in 3,282 (-553) theaters; PTA: $1,036; Cumulative: $117,250,000
5. Nightmare Alley (Searchlight) NEW – Cinemascore: B; Metacritic: 70; Est. budget: $60 million
$2,958,000 in 2,145 theaters; PTA: $1,379; Cumulative: $2,958,000
6. House of Gucci (United Artists) Week 4; Last weekend #4
$1,854,000 (-55%) in 1,907 (-1,500) theaters; PTA: $972; Cumulative: $44,886,000
7. Eternals (Disney) Week 7; Last weekend #5
$1,192,000 (-62%) in 1,900 (-1,300) theaters; PTA: $627; Cumulative: $163,598,000
8. Pushpa: The Rise (Hamsini) NEW – Cinemascore:; Metacritic:; Est. budget: $
$(est.) 1,100,000 in 400 theaters; PTA: $2,750; Cumulative: $(est.) 1,100,000
9. Clifford the Big Red Dog (Paramount) Week 6; Last weekend #7; also on Paramount +
$400,000 (-69%) in 2,840 (-421) theaters; PTA: $320; Cumulative: $48,586,000
10. Resident Evil: Raccoon City (Sony) Week 4; Last weekend #6
$280,000 (-87%) in 719 (-1,853) theaters; PTA: $389; Cumulative: $16,733,000
Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, and the rest of the incredible cast of Spider-Man: Far From Home have proven that not even a life threatening pandemic can prevent fans from flocking to the theaters to see the latest comic book film from the Marvel (and Sony) universe!
