“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the grand finale in Marvel’s web-slinging superhero trilogy, has crossed another major box office milestone, surpassing $800 million globally.
After only 10 days on the big screen, the latest Tom Holland-led Spidey adventure has become the highest-grossing Hollywood movie of the year with $813.9 million worldwide. On Wednesday, it passed MGM’s James Bond sequel “No Time to Die,” which grossed $774 million globally.
To date, only two local Chinese movies — “The Battle at Lake Changjin” ($902 million) and “Hi, Mom” ($882 million) — have generated more than “No Way Home” at the global box office, but Sony and Marvel’s superhero epic looks to dethrone those titles in the coming week. At this pace, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” will be the first pandemic-era movie to crush the $1 billion mark, an especially impressive feat considering the film isn’t playing in China.
At the domestic box office, the newest “Spider-Man” tale collected $27 million on Wednesday from 4,336 theaters, kicking off a busy holiday season with a bang. It brings the film’s six-day tally to $356.5 million, a massive result. Between Wednesday and Sunday, “No Way Home” could add as much as $160 million, which would push its North American haul past $450 million.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is steamrolling the box office at a time when several new movies are opening nationwide to notable ticket sales. Despite growing concerns over the omicron variant of COVID-19, which has been quickly spreading in New York City and other parts of the country, the overall domestic box office will reach its highest levels for a single weekend since 2019.
After “No Way Home,” the battle for second place will come down to Universal’s animated musical comedy “Sing 2” and the Warner Bros. sci-fi sequel “Matrix Resurrections,” both of which opened on Wednesday and look to land solid holiday-weekend tallies.
“Sing 2” had the slight edge on Wednesday, earning $8.14 million from 3,892 venues. Through Sunday, the family-friendly jukebox comedy remains on track to amass at least $40 million. That number is slightly inflated because it includes $1.6 million banked from advanced screenings over Thanksgiving weekend. Still, it represents a good turnout since parents with young kids have been more reluctant to go to the movies amid the pandemic.
Directed by Garth Jennings, “Sing 2” has been positively reviewed and tells the story of the optimistic koala Buster Moon (voiced by Matthew McConaughey) and his animal friends (voiced by Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Nick Kroll, Pharrell Williams and Taron Egerton). In the newest adventure, they attempt to convince a legendary rock star (voiced by none other than Bono) to perform with them during a concert for a snooty media mogul.
“The Matrix” earned $6.4 million on Wednesday from 3,552 venues in North America, putting the film on pace to finish the weekend with $40 million to $50 million. At the higher end of that range, “Resurrections” would beat “Dune” ($41 million) to land the biggest debut for a Warner Bros. movie this year. Like the studio’s entire 2021 slate, the fourth “Matrix” installment is playing simultaneously on HBO Max.
Lana Wachowski directed “The Matrix Resurrections,” which stars Keanu Reeves as the sleek cybercriminal Neo and Carrie-Anne Moss as Trinity and picks up 20 years after their last on-screen outing in the seminal sci-fi series, 2003’s “The Matrix Revolutions.” Variety’s Peter Debruge had mostly positive things to say about “The Matrix Resurrections,” calling it “a pop-subversive sequel smart enough to realize there’s no reason for it to exist.”
Disney and 20th Century’s “The King’s Man” opened to $2.3 million from 3,180 cinemas on Wednesday, enough for fourth place. The third installment in the “Kingsman” film series, which stars Ralph Fiennes and serves as an origin story about the independent intelligence agency, has revised estimates down to $10 million to $12 million over the five-day frame. It’s certainly below expectations, but even that figure wouldn’t be a bad start given outsized competition on movie theater marquees.
Two other new nationwide releases, Lionsgate’s sports drama “American Underdog” and Sony’s romance story “A Journal for Jordan,” aren’t opening until Friday. Each title is estimated to make $7 million (give or take) over the traditional weekend.
That’s not all. “The Tender Bar,” directed by George Clooney and starring Ben Affleck, is landing on the big screen. However, it’s being released by Amazon Studios so the company likely won’t report box office grosses. And, finally, “Licorice Pizza,” the latest feature from director Paul Thomas Anderson, is expanding its footprint nationally after playing in select theaters in N.Y. and L.A. in recent weeks.
It’s a true bounty at the Christmas box office.