‘No Way Home’ Is The ‘Force Awakens’ Of ‘Spider-Man’ Movies

Thanks to a near-total absence of competition, Spider-Man: No Way Home continued to rally and once again top the weekend box office. Sony and Marvel’s superhero sequel earned $11.6 million (-17%) in its seventh weekend, bringing its domestic cume to $736.5 million. That’s obviously the fourth-biggest domestic cume ever, behind Avatar ($760 million), Avengers: Endgame ($858 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Its seventh weekend gross is larger than The Force Awakens ($11.1 million), which dropped 21% in weekend seven albeit with actual competition like Kung Fu Panda 3, Ride Along 2 and The Revenant nipping at its heels. Of course, since the big release this weekend was supposed to be Morbius, it’s a “tails Sony wins, heads Sony doesn’t lose” scenario. Unless Morbius opens soft in April leading us to argue it should have ridden No Way Home’s coattails but ask me again in April.  

Spider-Man: No Way Home has transcended “it’s a third Spider-Man movie,” “it’s a MCU threequel” or even “it’s a glorified Avengers movie/mythology episode” circumstances. Along with other positive factors (MCU fandom, general Spider-Man popularity, reviews, buzz, a lack of competition, holiday legs, etc.), Spider-Man: No Way Home was partially greeted (by nostalgic demographics) as both a glorified “part four” to Sam Raimi and Toby Maguire’s Spider-Man trilogy and a redemptive threequel to Marc Webb and Andrew Garfield’s Amazing Spider-Man duology. Spider-Man: No Way Home played not unlike how The Force Awakens was greeted not just as a new Star Wars movie but as a direct sequel to Return of the Jedi (one which was initially seen as a “This will begin to make things right.” reaction to the Prequel trilogy). It became a multigenerational nostalgic event and a metaphorical redemption for Sony’s previous franchise missteps.

If it continues to leg out like Star Wars Episode VII, the Tom Holland/Zendaya actioner will reach $770 million domestic. It’s already 27th on the list of adjusted-for-inflation domestic earnings, just below Forrest Gump ($330 million/$737 million). However, quite a few movies higher on the list (Forrest Gump, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Fantasia, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Lion King, 101 Dalmatians and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs) are only above $735 million in adjusted domestic earnings due to one or more rereleases. 101 Dalmatians earned $14 million in 1961, $18 million in 1969, $19 million in 1979, $33 million in 1985 and $61 million in 1991. Regardless, once Spider-Man 3 version 2.0 hits $740 million this week or next weekend, it’ll pass The Godfather ($134 million in 1972/$739 million adjusted) as the 25th-biggest “tickets sold” domestic grosser of all time.

Jon Watts’ Spider-Man: No Way Home has already earned 2.83 times its $260 million domestic debut, making it leggier than Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($620 million/$220 million in 2017). Once it passes $757 million, it’ll be leggier than Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($515 million/$177 million in 2019). In terms of the “bad but not that bad” $100 million losers club (films that grossed at least $100 million less in weekend two than they did in weekend one), it has earned 1.57 times its $470 million ten-day total. That already makes it the sixth leggiest member, behind only Incredibles 2 (1.74x its $347 million ten-day total for a $608 million finish), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (1.68x $368 million = $620 million… because audiences really didn’t hate it), The Avengers (1.67x $373 million = $623 million) and Jurassic World (1.62x $402 million = $652 million). 

Spider-Man: No Way Home has earned 88% more at the domestic box office than Spider-Man: Far from Home ($390 million in 2019). That’s a bigger jump for a threequel than the likes of Captain America: Civil War (+57% from The Winter Soldier), Skyfall (+81% from Quantum of Solace) and even John Wick: Chapter 3 (+86% from John Wick: Chapter 2). Among all relevant threequel jumps, it sits behind only Army of Darkness (+94% from Evil Dead 2 with an R-rating and an actual wide theatrical release), Goldfinger (+106% more than From Russia with Love) and Once Upon a Time in Mexico (+122% from Desperado eight years later with a bigger profile and a post-Pirates 1 Johnny Depp in a key supporting role). In terms of jumps for regularly scheduled threequels to successful sequels, it’s basically Goldfinger and No Way Home standing alone at the top.  

It was that extra kick, including a marketing campaign that revealed some big nostalgic elements (the likes of Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina and Jamie Foxx returning as previous Spider-Man franchise villains) and hid the second-act return of Maguire and Garfield. Sure, it was the worst kept secret in Hollywood, but there was still much to discover in terms of what and how their genuine supporting turns played out in the film. From Maguire’s droll “I barely want to be here” deadpan to Garfield’s overeager people-pleaser humor (both of which felt like a melding of onscreen and offscreen personas), the film had crowd-pleasing elements beyond “They show up!” Spider-Man: No Way Home wasn’t just the third MCU Spider-Man movie, but also the Spider-Man 4 and Amazing Spider-Man 3 fans allegedly wanted but were previously denied. Cue a current $1.725 billion global total, without a penny from China.