Spider-Man has swung back onto the big screen with a record-breaking performance. The latest superhero movie, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, earned an incredible $927 million (£687 million) in global ticket sales during its opening weekend. This makes it the second-biggest global opening weekend in film history, easily surpassing its estimated $225 million production budget.
The film stars real-life husband and wife Tom Holland and Zendaya. Its opening performance is behind only 2019's Avengers: Endgame, which collected over $1.2 billion in its first weekend. Brand New Day also achieved a second-best record in North America, taking in $335 million.
The new story picks up a few years after 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home. Peter Parker continues to fight crime in New York, but he now lives in a world where everyone has forgotten his identity as the masked superhero. The movie received mostly positive reviews from critics, with several calling it Tom Holland's best performance as Spider-Man so far.
Audiences around the world turned out in massive numbers. Outside the US, the movie made $572 million across more than 73,000 screens. That total included $121 million in China and $49 million in the UK over the weekend.
The massive success comes as a welcome boost for Marvel Studios after several recent releases struggled to match peak box office numbers. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige described the opening as "truly phenomenal" and expressed gratitude to moviegoers for experiencing the film in theaters.
The strong performance also signals a continuing recovery for cinemas. Movie theater attendance had slowed down following the COVID-19 pandemic, but the North American box office is now on track to pass $10 billion for the first time since 2019.