Spider-Man: Brand New Day with a $927M global opening at 90,000 screens worldwide was the second best ever for the motion picture industry, behind Avengers: Endgame‘s reported $1.22 billion and ahead of 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War‘s reported $640.5M. Brand New Day on a global basis broke records as the best ever for the Spider-Man franchise (easily whipping Sony/Marvel Studios’ No Way Home‘s $600.5M, which was the third best global box office debut ever, now fourth), a record for Zendaya, Daniel Destin Cretton, and of course the best ever for Sony studios.
Of that global monster gross, international rang up $572M from 66 offshore markets and 73,500 screens. Hands down, the movie is playing to a strong general audience. There’s always a pent-up demand for a big Hollywood film with the first day being the biggest, but the holds here we understand on a daily basis are easily far ahead of No Way Home‘s.
Brand New Day set all-time opening records across the globe in likes-for-likes, including France ($26.6M), India ($31.8M, #1 for Hollywood picture; the 6th biggest opening in the history of India which has always been Bollywood strong, staggering), Brazil ($23.8M), Spain ($15.6M), Peru ($8.6M), Colombia ($6.8M), the United Arab Emirates ($6.8M), Saudi Arabia ($5.4M), Chile($5.0M), Turkey ($4.7M), Ecuador ($4.1M) and Belgium ($4.0M).
Brazil has always been known as a DC market given how audiences grew up on that comic book there. The overindex here is exceptional, particularly with the low exchange rate. It beats Endgame in like-for-likes.
Outside the Western European markets, Brand New Day has broken records already as of end of day Saturday in other parts of Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (the EEMEA area), ahead of Endgame.
China led all international markets with $121.0M, the biggest ever for a Marvel post-Covid; remember the previous installment No Way Home didn’t release in the Middle Kingdom. The United Kingdom launched with $49.0M (#3 all-time). Other notable markets include Mexico ($38.3M, #2 all-time). South Korea ($25.0M), Australia ($21.4M, #2 all-time passing No Way Home and Force Awakens and behind Endgame there), Germany ($20.0M), Italy ($18.2M), Argentina ($10.5M), Japan ($10.0M), the Philippines ($9.3M, #3 all-time, a great comeback number for the territory for an MPA title post Covid), and the Netherlands ($4.7M, #3 all-time).
The secret of success in Japan was pulling in the 20-40 audience which can be a hard demo to reach for U.S. product. The challenge with Spider-Man there was an aging audience and Brand New Day delivered something fresh. The main Naver audience score in Korea was 91, which is enormous for an MPA title. The opening in Korea was No. 1 ahead of local mega title, Hope. First day in Korea for Brand New Day set an occupancy record (53% sold out). $10M is gigantic for the market in today’s world.
For those who might be whining why didn’t Brand New Day beat Avengers: Endgame, well, we didn’t have Russia in this opening suite (which bowed to a reported $15.4M back in the day there) since MPA titles (as opposed to U.S. movies backed by foreign sales) can’t play there. But also, China is a different ball game. Even though Brand New Day opened to No. 1 in the Middle Kingdom with $121M, the fate of Hollywood movies there have had slot machine results post Covid with some up and some down. Endgame opened to a reported $175.9M. Brand New Day’s $121M opening is not only remarkable for a Marvel movie in China, but also Hollywood movies.
With Brand New Day, the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s grosses grows to $33.3 billion from 38 movies.
4DX/ScreenX PLFs delivered a record $31M start in its formats around the world for Brand New Day from 1,111 screens, broken out that’s $14.4M in ScreenX and $17M in 4DX. The previous best opening record for ScreenX and 4DX combined was Jurassic World: Rebirth with $15.7M.
Brand New Day was entirely shot for ScreenX, marketing the first time CJ 4DPLEX collaborated with the filmmakers from on-set production through theatrical exhibition.
ScreenX in the states shattered all previous opening records with $7M, 2.6x more than the previous biggest opener in the format, Super Mario Galaxy with $2.7M. Stateside 4DX did $5.2M. ScreenX overseas did $7.5M, while 4DX delivered $11.7M.
Spidey didn’t have Imax in the states and other parts of the world where Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey claimed them, but he had them in Korea, Japan and China where that Universal title hasn’t opened yet. The combined Imax for Brand New Day in China, Japan and South Koreas was $23M. In China, the record-breaking result was $19M, 16% of the pic’s opening in the territory, making it the highest-grossing Imax opening weekend in the Spider-Man franchise for the territory. Imax delivered $2.4M for Brand New Day in South Korea, the biggest opening for the large format exhibitor in the market, repping 9% of the sequel’s overall weekend there. On a shared schedule, Japan added an additional $2.2M in Imax box office, accounting for 18% of the movie’s total market debut.
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