As far as the movie business goes, distributors and studio execs all breathed a collective sigh of relief Labor Day weekend when Shang-Chi opened to boffo-box office. Since then, theatrical revenues have bounced back somewhat, with Venom: Let There Be Carnage a smash, and movies like No Time to Die, Eternals, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, Halloween Kills and Dune all doing respectable business. However, none of these movies have crossed that magic $1 billion worldwide benchmark. All eyes are pointed towards Spider-Man: No Way Home’s opening weekend, with many expecting it to be the film that ushers in a full-on box office resurgence.
Whether or not that happens remains to be seen. Still, Fandango is reporting (via Deadline) that the first day of pre-sales for Spider-Man: No Way Home are the biggest since Avengers: Endgame, which, as we all know, is the second highest-grossing movie of all time with close to $2.8 billion in worldwide box office. This shouldn’t be too much of a surprise as various ticketing sites crashed due to the pent-up demand Sunday evening. Deadline also reports that the web-slinger beat fellow MCU entry Black Widow’s opening sales take in less than two hours.
Hopefully, Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s pre-sales mean that it’s the box office juggernaut we’ve all been waiting for. If the rumours of more than one Spider-Man being part of the plot are true, it just might single-handedly resurrect the theatrical model. However, I don’t think anyone should expect it to gross Avengers: Endgame numbers, with that film opening two and a half years ago when let’s face it, things were different. Covid-19 has done a number on the business, that’s for sure, but it also sounds like Tom Holland’s Spider-Man is coming to the rescue in a big way. If the movie does half the business Hollywood seems to think it will, they were wise to sign Holland on to another trilogy.
Are you psyched for Spider-Man: No Way Home?