Weekend Box Office: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Climbs to Spectacular $355 Million Debut
With a worldwide total of $927 million, it is the second-biggest opening of all time, behind only Avengers: Endgame.
Tired of comic book movies yet? Hold that thought. Maybe the B-Team, the C-Team, and the DC-Team are not getting as much love these days, but bring on the A-Listers and the audience clearly will still follow. Especially one that follows the third highest-grossing domestic release of all-time; a film that used to have the second-biggest opening weekend of all-time. Used to.
King of the Crop: Spider-Man: Brand New Day Climbs to Spectacular Debut
There may be the so-called “comic book fatigue” around the peripherals of secondary characters, but those locked into Deadpool and future Marvel team-ups aren’t going to sleep yet. The incredible “people are going to the movies again” performance of Spider-Man: No Way Home during the holiday season of 2021 (or 21 months into the pandemic) should get as much, if not more, credit than Top Gun: Maverick did five months later. After all, it had the second-biggest opening of all time ($260.1 million) in a period (Mar. 2020 – Dec. 2021) when the biggest opening was $90 million just 2.5 months earlier by the fellow Sony, Spider-Man-adjacent release of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. Black Widow was third with $80.3 million (and was available for a fee on Disney+ at the same time. Heck, even Eternals was fourth with $71.2 million.
The point being that the MCU and its Sony cash-grab brought audiences back to theaters during a very difficult time, culminating in one of the biggest films of all time. In a perfect bit of reversal, the world clearly has not forgotten Peter Parker, as Spider-Man: Brand New Day just opened to a near record-breaking $354.8 million, just $2.3 million from besting Avengers: Endgame’s $357.1 million. What more is there to say except wait until Monday for the final numbers? We might just have a new record. It already had the best opening day (plus previews) of $168 million, besting Avengers: Endgame’s $157.4 million. Clearly, that is the only film we can draw a parallel to right now. All others are moot until next week. Critics are on board with a healthy 90%, just slightly below the 92%/91%/93% of the three previous Tom Holland films (what a summer he is having!). Sam Raimi’s first two Spidey films also scored over 90%. Worldwide the film has already grossed $927 million. Avengers: Endgame opened to a whopping $1.223 billion.
Tales of the Top 10: The Odyssey Journeys On, Toy Story 5 Reaches for a Rare Achievement
Spider-Man: Brand New Day may seem like a runaway train right now, but Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey continues to run at full speed. The epic blockbuster just had the 16th-best third weekend of all time with $51 million (a 43% drop), just behind Top Gun: Maverick ($51.8 million). After 17 days it has grossed $395.5 million in North America (17th all time), just ahead of Top Gun: Maverick ($395.1 million). At this rate the film is clearly on pace to join the $500 million club, probably the 24th member after Brand New Day achieves it. Finding Dory is the highest-grossing film on the 17-day list ($372.1 million) to not pass half a billion domestic. Nearly 61% of The Odyssey’s grosses ($221 million) have come from IMAX screenings.
The Odyssey is already the sixth-highest grossing domestic release in the history of Universal. It has the second-highest 17-day total in their history, behind only Jurassic World ($500.3 million) and ahead of The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($390.3 million). The Dark Knight only had a $42.6 million third weekend, and The Odyssey is already outpacing it’s $393.7 million haul after 17 days (19th all time, also just behind Top Gun: Maverick) and could become Nolan’s highest-grossing film. Worldwide it is already over $911 million. That makes two films to be welcomed into the billion dollar club this week, making five for 2026 (and the second for Universal after Mario Galaxy), compared to only three Hollywood releases in 2025.
The top movie of 2026 may not be tops for too long after that monstrous Spider-Man opening. Toy Story 5 can take solace in that it is the top-grossing film in the franchise. That is something that each successive film in the Toy Story series can attest to during its release. That is an incredible statistic that one cannot find through an initial five-film run, where each release did better than the last. (No, Lightyear doesn’t count.) Die Hard and Resident Evil came close, doing it through their first four films. Toy Story 5 only needs to reach $1.073 billion to fully achieve this statistic both domestically and worldwide. After seven weekends, TS5 grossed $6.3 million to bring its domestic total to $461.7 million (achievement unlocked in passing Toy Story 4’s $434 million). Worldwide, it stands at $1.065 billion. It is currently just $7.5 million off of Finding Dory’s pace while beating its seventh weekend by $3 million. If it can catch Dory, then $490 million is in play. A half billion domestic may be just a bit out of its grasp, but that’s a minor conciliation to what Pixar has achieved both artistically and financially with these movies.
Keep reading to see how long the last Minions film lasted in the top 10. The latest, Minions & Monsters, is spending its fifth week in the top five, which is longer than half of the films in this franchise managed to do. Minions: The Rise of Gru and Despicable Me 4 spent six weeks up there. Despicable Me 2 also spent five weeks. That’s for the stat geeks out there. Universal is more interested in the bottom line, and while this will be, by far, the lowest-grossing entry of the series, it is still taking in tons of dough. Another $5.8 million this weekend brings its domestic total to $168.3 million. Add to that another $281 million overseas, and you have a $449 million worldwide gross for an $85 million production.
Each weekend audiences put a few more pennies into the Disney ledger for Moana to take a little more of the sting out of its major losses. Four weeks in, the live-action remake pulled in $5.3 million to bring its 24-day total to $114.7 million. The Lion King (2019), Beauty and the Beast (2017), Lilo & Stitch (2025), The Jungle Book (2016), Aladdin (2019), Alice in Wonderland (2010), and The Little Mermaid (2023) all had grossed more than that in their first five days. At the very least, it can say it outgrossed 2019’s Dumbo this weekend, even if only on the domestic side; that film still made over $238 million internationally, while Moana has made just $146 million outside North America to date. OK, so it has beaten last year’s Snow White, at least. That’s little consolation to Disney, but at least they have one of the biggest hits of the year to supplement its losses.
Hadestown: The Musical was supposed to be just a five-day run. But when you open a filmed stage production to over $10 million for the biggest weekend in your studio’s history, its best to hold it over. Which Bleecker Street did. Dropping 382 theaters to 1,567, the release may have fallen 80% to $2 million, but it has now grossed $18.2 million, more than Disney’s 10th Anniversary release of Hamilton ($16.9 million) last September, which originally debuted on Disney+ during the pandemic. Hadestown is now Bleecker’s third highest-grossing release ever after Logan Lucky ($27.7 million) and Eye in the Sky ($18.7 million).
It’s a double bill for Olivia Wilde in the top 10 this week. Her third directorial effort, The Invite, made $1.2 million. Now with $22.7 million, the film has become the second-highest grossing Sundance premiere since the pandemic after 2023’s Talk To Me ($48.2 million), also an A24 release. It is on the verge of joining the top 30 Sundance premieres ever and among the top 10 since 2010. Globally the film has grossed over $38 million, which ranks it 25th on the Sundance premiere list.
Then Gregg Araki’s I Want Your Sex enters the list in seventh place with $600,000 in 675 theaters. That is, by far, the biggest opening (theaters & gross) of Araki’s nearly 35-year career. The Living End opened to $43,715 in two theaters back in 1992. In fact, he has never had a film gross a million dollars. His most acclaimed film, Mysterious Skin, came closest in 2005 with $713,240. Magnolia Pictures, which released his last film back in 2014, White Bird in a Blizzard, opened I Want Your Sex wide and it nearly outgrossed Skin’s total haul in just three days. Pay attention to those sold out showings at film festivals.
Evil Dead Burn hangs in there with $527,000 in sales, bringing its domestic total to $31.2 million. Globally the film is approaching $70 million, which is not bad at all for a $20 million production. Warner Bros. now hopes that fans will return for Evil Dead Wrath in 2028 the way audiences turned up for Obsession. Week after week after week. Another $450,000 was enough for Curry Barker’s horror hit to hang on for a 12th week in the top 10, joining 13 other films to stay on the list for that long since the pandemic. Here is that list:
Top Gun: Maverick (21 weeks)
Spider-Man: No Way Home (17 weeks)
Avatar: The Way of Water (15 weeks)
Everything Everywhere All At Once, Sing 2, Tenet*, Wonder Woman 1984*, Zootopia 2 (14 weeks)
Minions: The Rise of Gru (13 weeks)
Migration, Mufasa: The Lion King, Obsession, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Wonka (12 weeks)
Barbie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Deadpool & Wolverine, Inside Out 2, Moana 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (11 weeks)
That brings Obsession’s domestic total to $262.7 million. Globally it is at nearly $475 million. What a run!
On The Vine: August Kicks Off With New Titles Galore
August is kicking off with a whole slew of titles. Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner star in Universal’s sexual Purge-like rom-com, One Night Only. The Broken Lizard gang is back in uniform for Super Troopers 3. Eli Roth wants audiences to scream for killer children in Ice Cream Man. Then, in limited release, A24 has Matt Johnson’s Anthony Bourdain biopic, Tony, with Dominic Sessa and Antonio Banderas. Willem Dafoe stars as an aging poet finding success decades later in Late Fame, which is at 88% on the Tomatometer. If you want to see a pair of films with perfect 100% critic scores to date, look for I Saw the TV Glow director Jane Schoenbrun placing Hannah Einbinder and Gillian Anderson in a sapphic deconstruction of ‘80s horror in Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, and there is also the girl scout documentary from Sundance, Cookie Queens. Finally, look out for CatVideoFest 2026 in your area.
Full List of Box Office Results: July 31 – August 2
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day – $354.8 million ($354.8 million total)
- The Odyssey – $51.0 million ($395.5 million total)
- Toy Story 5 – $6.3 million ($461.7 million total)
- Minions & Monsters – $5.8 million ($168.3 million total)
- Moana – $5.3 million ($114.7 million total)
- Hadestown: The Musical – $2.0 million ($18.2 million total)
- The Invite – $1.2 million ($22.7 million total)
- I Want Your Sex – $600,000 ($600,000 total)
- Evil Dead Burn – $527,000 ($31.2 million total)
- Obsession – $450,000 ($262.7 million total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Marvel Entertainment/©Columbia Pictures
