Spider-Man: No Way Home has been one of the most anticipated movies of all time. The third chapter in Tom Holland's MCU Spider-Man franchise has been brought up to the same level of hype as Avengers: Endgame, afforded by old villains returning and an endless supply of rumors. The film starring Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, and Jamie Foxx has now officially hit theaters worldwide.
An aspect that goes hand-in-hand with the overwhelming anticipation is how much the film will make at the box office. Due to the global pandemic, expectations have been tempered for all of 2021, as movies have gone back to properly opening in theaters. No Way Home was the one film this year that could resemble an all-time smash hit without any excuses because of COVID.
The initial results are in, and No Way Home is already making history at the domestic box office.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Saves the Holiday Box Office
UPDATE (Saturday AM): The Friday opening day numbers are in, and it's now clear that Spider-Man: No Way Home is the Christmas present that theater owners had been hoping for all year long.
The movie earned $121.5 million dollars domestically on Friday, December 17, which blows the previous pandemic-era record opening (Black Widow's $39.5 million) out of the water and cements No Way Home's opening as the second-highest Friday opening of all time, just behind Avengers: Endgame ($157 million) and beating Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($119 million) and Avengers: Infinity War ($106 million).
Box office analysts are now expecting No Way Home's domestic opening weekend to cross $240 million, which would guarantee that the Tom Holland-led threequel becomes at worst the fourth-highest opening weekend earner ever.
This exceeds all of the most-optimistic expectations, as, in the weeks leading up to No Way Home's release, Sony projected the movie to gross a conservative $150 million at the domestic box office on opening weekend.
ORIGINAL (Friday AM): Spider-Man: No Way Home's Thursday night preview earnings at the box office are truly amazing.
According to Variety, No Way Home earned $50 million during its first night in North America, smashing the pandemic-era opening night record previously held by Black Widow ($13.2M) and cementing its place as the third-highest opening of all time, beating blockbusters like Avenger: Infinity War ($38M) and Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($45M).
Typically, previews begin at 6pm, but this threequel began hitting screens at 3 pm on Thursday.
Avengers: Endgame made $60 million, followed by Star Wars: The Force Awakens earning $57 million at their opening previews.
No Way Home is on pace to easily have the largest opening weekend and become the highest-earning movie of 2021.
Will Spider-Man: No Way Home Make $1 Billion?
No Way Home is finally here and it couldn't be off to a hotter start. $12 million more than Avengers: Infiinty War on a Thursday night is hard to wrap one's head around. This film is already ignoring the fact that the world have been living in a pandemic for nearly two years. It's already drawing the question of how much more it could, would, and should make if there weren't global health and safety concerns.
In the short term, No Way Home will aim to make over $200 million at the domestic opening box office. It will likely pass Black Panther ($202M) and The Avengers ($207.4M) and have its eyes set on catching Avengers: Infinity War ($257.7M).
Globally, time will tell how huge this film could possibly get. There are no current plans for China (the largest box office in the world) to release No Way Home in their theaters. Sony films like Venom and Spider-Man in the past have done extremely well at the Chinese box office and could lead to a great, not extraordinarily worldwide box office haul.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is now playing in theaters worldwide.
