Spidey Swings to a Record: "Brand New Day" Opens at $360 Million
Hollywood's summer hot streak just got hotter, with the webslinger's latest outing smashing the all-time opening weekend record
By Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr
The numbers came in Sunday night, and Hollywood executives reportedly did a double take. "Spider-Man: Brand New Day" pulled in an estimated $360 million in its U.S. opening weekend — the biggest domestic debut in box office history, according to CBS News.
The film leapt straight to No. 1, continuing what CBS News describes as Hollywood's hot streak at the multiplex this year. Marlow Stern, chief correspondent at Variety, joined CBS News to break down the numbers and what they mean for an industry that's spent years worrying aloud about whether audiences would still show up in person for a superhero movie.
This one, it seems, they did — in force. A $360 million weekend eclipses prior benchmarks set by earlier entries in Marvel's Spider-Man franchise and comic-book blockbusters generally, though exact comparisons to past records were not detailed in the available reporting.
What we don't yet have: the film's full budget, its per-theater average, or specifics on its opening-day breakdown — figures typically released by studios and tracking firms like Comscore in the days following a debut. We'll follow the studio's own numbers as they're confirmed.
For now, the takeaway from the industry side is simple: the modern blockbuster is not dead, and neither, evidently, is Spider-Man's box office pull. Whether that momentum holds through the back half of the summer — a stretch usually crowded with sequels and franchise bets — remains the open question Hollywood will be watching next.
— Roxanne "Flashbulb" Starr. If I can't source it, you won't read it here.
— Compiled from reporting by CBS News, with commentary from Variety's Marlow Stern.
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