‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ Becomes First Pandemic Movie to Break $1 Billion in Global Sales
The pandemic threw a wrench into holiday celebrations for the second year in a row as the omicron variant proves to be incredibly infectious. However, even that wasn't enough to stop Spider-Man: No Way Home from becoming a box office titan.
Tom Holland's latest outing as the web-slinging hero just became the first pandemic-era movie to break $1 billion in global sales, and it did so in an impressive amount of time.
According to Variety, No Way Home pulled off the feat in 12 days. There are only two movies that hit the benchmark faster. Both of them are also entries in the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Avengers: Infinity War did so in 11 days, and Avengers: Endgame pulled it off in five.
The latest entry in the incredibly successful MCU is tied at third place with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which also took 12 days to break $1 billion in 2015.
No Way Home has been hitting jaw-dropping numbers since it opened internationally.
Variety noted that the film pulled in $260 during its opening weekend in America. That was enough to make it the second-highest debut in Hollywood history. This time it bowed in only behind Avengers: Endgame's record-holding $357 million.
Looking at 2021, Spider-Man: No Way Home is the highest-grossing movie in America. With $467 million in domestic sales, it eclipsed the second place entry Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. The latter topped out at $224 million.
It's also proving to be a critical smash.
The film carries a "Certified Fresh" distinction with a 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. More impressively, it received a 98% score from movie-goers.
No Way Home's overwhelming success isn't really surprising.
Anticipation has been sky-high for the project ever since rumors started swirling that previous Spider-Men Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield were due to make cameos. Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe and Alfred Molina who starred as classic villains in previous iterations of the Spider-Man franchise also reprised their roles in the movie.
There was such a rush to secure tickets for opening night that the movie caused on online bloodbath the day tickets were available for presale. Since its release there have been rumors about spin-off projects starring the likes of retuning villains such as Foxx's Electro.
Not only that, but The Hollywood Reporter announced that the film could be in the running for Best Picture at the 2022 Oscars.
All things considered, Holland's friendly neighborhood Spider-Man has an absolute smash hit on his hands.