One of the biggest box office prospects of the summer was Spider-Man: Homecoming. After a splendid introduction to the re-rebooted version of New York's famed webslinger in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, hopes were high for Spidey's first solo adventure within the MCU, and enough people turned out to see Tom Holland's Spider-Man adventure to generate a total domestic gross of $333,528,381, and a whopping worldwide gross of $879,598,965.Homecoming was born out of a desire from Marvel to include the character in their shared cinematic universe, as well as Sony's desire to make a Spider-Man film that would rescue the character following the lukewarm critical reception and underwhelming box office returns of the ill-fated Amazing Spider-Man series, starring Andrew Garfield.Now that the dust has all but settled on Spider-Man: Homecoming, let's take a look back at how the Jon Watts-directed adventure fared at the box office. There are many different contexts in which one can view the film's box office performance. How does it compare to Garfield's films, as well as Sam Raimi's original trilogy? How does Homecoming stack up against fellow 2017 superhero blockbusters Wonder Woman and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2? And where does the film land in within the context of the Marvel Cinematic Universe?Let's break it down.

Shifted Expectations

Back in 2014, Sony was banking on The Amazing Spider-Man 2 joining the "billion dollar club." The film was expected to lead into a whole Spider-Man Expanded Universe, opening the door for movies based on The Sinister Six, Venom, Black Cat, Spider-Man 2099, and more. The budget for Amazing Spider-Man 2 was reportedly greater than $250 million (not including marketing), and Sony was really banking on it to succeed in enabling their own cinematic universe to compete with the MCU.

Of course, it didn't exactly work out that way. The film closed with $708 million worldwide, lower than its predecessor by around $50 million, and nearly $300 million short of Sony's lofty ambitions for the title. For most movies, $700 million is a tremendous accomplishment, but not for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. On top of its relative financial disappointment, the film was also skewered by fans and critics for being loud, dumb, witless, and simply one of the worst films of 2014.

On the other hand, Spider-Man: Homecoming released in a very different environment. First of all, the reception to Tom Holland in Captain America: Civil War was much stronger than Andrew Garfield's first turn as Peter Parker in The Amazing Spider-Man. The film makes liberal use of its MCU setting, building off the events of The Avengers and even including Robert Downey Jr and Jon Favreau in supporting roles. Homecoming was an expansion of a pre-existing cinematic universe with incredible brand recognition and consumer trust, while the Sony Pictures Amazing films were always stuck in the shadow of Sam Raimi's groundbreaking Tobey Maguire movies. Perhaps most importantly, the budget was kept at to a reasonable $170 million... Well, reasonable by the standards of mega-blockbuster superhero spectacle, at least.

With all this in mind, Homecoming had a much smaller hill to climb, and more help in climbing it.

Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man vs. Spider-Man

Spider-Man Actors

As mentioned earlier, Homecoming is the second reboot of the Spider-Man franchise, following Amazing Spider-Man, with Andrew Garfield, and the original, with Tobey Maguire.

In the pantheon of Spider-Man movies, Homecoming is in an interesting position. Domestically (in the United States and Canada), Homecoming made $333 million, placing it miles ahead of both Amazing films. Amazing Spider-Man 2 was a domestic disappointment with a relatively meager $202 million, while the original reboot landed with a more sure-footed $262 million. At the time, however, the first Amazing Spider-Man movie was seen as a modestly acceptable performer; analysts knew there was little chance for it to reach the lofty heights of the original trilogy, but if it did solid business, then it would at least have room to grow with the sequel. Obviously, that didn't happen.

When comparing Homecoming with the original trilogy, things become a bit trickier. It's impossible to overstate how much of a phenomenon the 2002 Spider-Man film really was. Even without accounting for 15 years worth of inflation, that movie brought in a massive $403 million domestic, which makes it, by far, Spider-Man's highest-grossing adventure to date (adjusted, it made $617 million). Spider-Man 2 had a $373 million domestic haul, while Spider-Man 3 sits in third place with $336 million.

While a decade of ticket price inflation stretches out the margins a bit further (bringing Spider-Man 3 up to a cool $434 million), both Sony and Marvel have to be pleased with Homecoming's $333 million take; back in 2007, Spider-Man 3 had a record-breaking budget of $258 million, which makes it still one of the most expensive movies ever made, and Homecoming's budget was scaled back in comparison. As for its domestic performance, the fact that Homecoming escaped the pull of the underwhelming Amazing films and is within the same wheelhouse as the original trilogy is a victory.

Globally, Homecoming fares even better. To date, Spider-Man 3 remains the highest-grossing Spider-Man film worldwide, with a staggering $890 million total. Homecoming is only just behind it, with $879 million, making it the second-highest-grossing Spider-Man movie yet, not including Captain America: Civil War, in which the webhead played only a supporting role.

Spider-Man vs. the MCU

So far, there have been sixteen films in Marvel's Cinematic Universe. There are solo introduction films like Doctor Strange, Thor, Iron Man, etc; sequels like Thor: The Dark World, Iron Man 2, etc; and team-up movies like The Avengers and Captain America: Civil War, which feature multitudes of heroes converging for a game-changing event.

Some people had hopes that Spider-Man: Homecoming would play like a team-up film, since Iron Man plays a key supporting role, but such hopes were somewhat unfair, since Tony Stark plays a role akin to that of the wise old mentor who guides the hero along his journey, rather than a co-lead himself. Then again, Homecoming can't really be judged as a solo introduction film, either, since the character was introduced in Civil War, and it's a reboot of a reboot. It was a double-edged sword; Spider-Man is a household name, but were audiences burned out on the character after the first failed reboot?

Fortunately, its placement within the MCU suggests there is still plenty of life in the Spider-Man brand. Domestically, Homecoming is the seventh-highest-grossing MCU film, ahead of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and virtually identical to the first Guardians of the Galaxy. Of course, it's way behind The Avengers and Civil War, as well as breakout sequels Iron Man 3 and Guardians Vol. 2, but that's still a fantastic performance by most metrics. On a global scale, the film did even better. Homecoming the fifth-highest-grossing MCU film worldwide, only after the two Avengers movies, Iron Man 3, and Captain America: Civil War. This indicates that Spider-Man is still a top tier property, even after two reboots, though the inclusion of Iron Man certainly helped the film's worldwide prospects.

Spider-Man vs 2017 Superhero Blockbusters

So far within 2017, Spider-Man: Homecoming is the fourth highest-grossing movie of the year, following Beauty and the Beast, Wonder Woman, and Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol 2. Worldwide, the top four change, with Wonder Woman and Guardians Vol 2 swapped out for Fate of the Furious and Despicable Me 3 (Beauty and the Beast and Spider-Man still hold the first and fourth spots, respectively).

What does that mean for Homecoming's performance relative to Wonder Woman and Guardians? Interestingly, while Homecoming didn't quite make the headlines of either two movies, it actually out-grossed them both worldwide. As mentioned earlier, Homecoming closed with $879 million, while Guardians finished with $863 million, and Wonder Woman ended its global run with $821 million.

Domestically, Spider-Man brings up the rear in the trilogy of summer superhero epics; its $333 million is a far cry from Guardians Vol 2's healthy take of $389 million, and even further from Wonder Woman's glass-ceiling-shattering $412 million.

One thing which kept Homecoming from making the same headlines as Guardians, or especially Wonder Woman, was its staggered release schedule. The film opened in many territories in early July, but it didn't hit Japan until a month later, and it didn't release in China until August 8; combined, the two territories grossed an impressive $141 million, which gave the impression Homecoming was more in line with the Amazing duology, rather than up there with the biggest of the original trilogy.

Is Spider-Man: Homecoming A Hit?

With the benefit of hindsight, it's safe to say that Spider-Man: Homecoming is a huge success for Sony and Marvel. The character was successfully rebooted in Civil War, but Homecoming proved that Tom Holland could carry the weight of the legendary franchise on his young shoulders. In terms of Spider-Man films, Homecoming landed neck-and-neck with Spider-Man 3, inflation notwithstanding. The fact that it outpaced both Amazing films surely comes as a relief to Sony, who made a bold move in sharing the character with Marvel Studios. Fortunately, it paid off, revitalizing the character, while simultaneously introducing a charismatic new hero to the growing ranks of Avengers: Infinity War.

Who knows where the Sony partnership will go from here? In addition to Spider-Man's confirmed appearance in Avengers 3 and 4, Marvel's Phase 4 is set to kick off with a currently untitled Homecoming sequel, and Sony is moving forward with spin-off movies Venom and Silver & Black. It is yet to be seen if these Spider-branded spin-offs will prove to be canon within Marvel's universe, or merely standalone stories with their own aesthetic sensibilities.

Of course, the massive success of the Sony/Marvel partnership has also sparked hopes that other studios will allow Marvel Studios to share the rights to their characters. Fans have been dying for Marvel's First Family, The Fantastic 4, to make a proper appearance in the MCU, and even Hugh Jackman himself has expressed interest in returning to his most famous role, Wolverine, if it were to be set in Marvel's playground of creativity. While none of these deals have yet to come to fruition, or even officially enter talks, the Sony/Marvel Spider-Man deal proved that, at the very least, it's possible.

Spider-Man: Homecoming isn't the highest-grossing movie of all time, or of 2017. It's not even the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie. But that's okay, because it didn't need to be. It just needed to accomplish what the Amazing movies could not: put the series on solid critical footing and making a ton of money while keeping the budget in check. Homecoming's budget was at least $85 million less than Amazing Spider-Man 2, and it ultimately out-grossed ASM2 by $170 million. Sony is absolutely filing this one in the "win" column.

Next: How Spider-Man: Homecoming Made Batman v Superman Better