When Spider-Man: Brand New Day premiered and the box-office numbers started coming out, we all went a little bit crazy: Would it become the highest-grossing film of all time worldwide? Would it be the first to break 3 billion dollars? Were we looking at the movie that would save the film industry forever? The answer is close, but not quite. When it became clear that beating Avengers: Endgame and Avatar would be impossible, settling into the top 3 (which many would love to have), there was only one record left to beat. And it has just done it.
A lightsaber that goes “Thwip!”
Although it took 7 and a half weeks, Disney has finally beaten itself at the US box office, and officially Spidey has beaten The Force Awakens, Star Wars Episode VII, which had gone unbeaten since 2015. Specifically, that one finished at $936.6 million and Marvel’s has just surpassed it by another $100,000 (and counting, of course).
It’s so official now that Lucasfilm’s own account has celebrated the triumph on its Instagram account: “Impressive. Most impressive. From a galaxy far, far away, everyone at Lucasfilm sends huge congratulations to Destin, Tom, everyone at Sony and Marvel, and the whole team behind Spider-Man: Brand New Day for setting a new domestic box-office record and taking the crown from Star Wars: The Force Awakens”. No hard feelings. At the end of the day, it all stays in the family.
It took a tiny bit longer than I expected, but now it’s official… although with Avengers: Doomsday around the corner, Spidey’s reign may not last long. We’ll have to see, but, for now, all that’s left is to celebrate. There can’t be any champagne left to uncork at Marvel by now, that’s for sure.
