Spider-Man: No Way Home Officially Crosses $1 Billion at Box Office

Spider-Man: No Way Home has officially grossed over $1 billion at the global box office. The recently released third movie, featuring Tom Holland in his sixth appearance as Peter Parker, was the final offering from Marvel Studios in 2021 in a co-production with Sony Pictures. After sustaining several delays during development, due to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the film released in America on December 17^th, 2021.

Anticipation for the film was at a record high, with box office predictions anticipating that the film would have the biggest debut in history for a Spider-Man movie. The film’s marketing promised to bring together elements from the previous film incarnations of the web-slinger, pitting Tom Holland’s Parker against foes such as Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock and Jamie Foxx’s Electro. The film released to record-breaking box office numbers and was adored by fans as the film made good on its teases.

According to Deadline, Spider-Man: No Way Home has now crossed another milestone, grossing over $1 billion at the worldwide box office. After just 12 days, the film has currently grossed $1.05 billion, making it the highest grossing film of 2021 and Sony’s number two film of all time, behind only its predecessor, Spider-Man: Far From Home, at $1.13 billion. The film is also the first to join the billion-dollar club since the pandemic and has been one of the few to do so without any takings from China.

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While this success may be relatively commonplace for a Marvel Studios project, it is no small feat in a world where pandemic countermeasures have majorly impacted the film industry. The early summer of 2021 saw a cautious return to movie theaters in the wake of vaccines and an improved understanding of how to combat COVID-19. While this has made studios confident enough to release numerous delayed blockbusters, box office numbers have been a far cry from those in 2019, which saw nine films gross over $1 billion. Understandably, audiences have been wary of returning to crowded indoor spaces, which has prompted studios to provide the option of streaming their tentpole releases. HBO Max, in particular, committed to making Warner Bros. entire 2021 slate available to subscribers, which has been partially blamed for several of the studios key releases, such as The Suicide Squad and The Matrix Resurrections, seeing problems at the box office.

There's hope that if the virus can continue to be controlled, then this is an encouraging sign for the box office to come in 2022. No Way Home's success is clear evidence that audiences are still willing to turn out for an event movie and are displaying an increased amount of confidence in their public safety. This also, however, may be a further indication of Disney and Marvel’s domination at the box office as, when looking at the lackluster performance of films such as Nightmare Alley and The Last Duel, it’s hard to argue that this success trickles down to smaller films fighting for screenings. This was a point that provoked Martin Scorsese’s 2019 comments that superhero films were not “real cinema,” which Tom Holland recently criticised. Regardless, this result can only be encouraging news for cinema exhibition, which was thought to be on its knees this time last year, and hopefully, Spider-Man: No Way Home can be an indication of better things to come.

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Source: Deadline