Disney CEO Josh D’Amaro congratulated rival Sony Pictures Entertainment on Spider-Man: Brand New Day, saying its spectacular opening “bodes well” for Disney’s forthcoming Avengers installment.
Speaking on the company’s quarterly earnings call Wednesday, D’Amaro called last weekend’s debut “an unbelievable result.” At $360 million in the U.S., Brand New Day topped Disney’s Avengers: Endgame with the best domestic bow of all time, and cruised past $1 billion globally just a few days into its release.
For a complicated legal reasons, Sony has retained distribution rights to Spider-Man even though the film franchise is produced by Disney’s Marvel Studios. The ongoing Disney stake in Spider-Man’s success gave D’Amaro’s remarks a self-promotional aspect, though they also represented a relatively rare gesture across the aisle from one major media player to another.
“I’d be remiss not to acknowledge and congratulate everyone on this past weekend’s record breaking opening,” D’Amaro said, name-checking Sony, Marvel chief Kevin Feige and Marvel Studios.
The box office performance is “one more example that audiences will turn out in force for great theatrical experiences. 65 years after his debut, Spider Man remains one of the most popular characters. through consumer products, parks, and streaming. And this weekend, it’s a great reminder of just how much strength this franchise still has. And it goes without saying that the success of ‘Spider Man’ bodes well for our upcoming and highly anticipated Avengers: Doomsday film.”
Avengers: Doomsday, the first film in the franchise since 2019, is slated for release on December 18.
The superhero genre has been in decline across the board, with that downturn hitting Marvel and Disney in recent years as the theatrical business also struggled to return to pre-Covid levels.
