‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’ has done the unthinkable as Marvel blockbuster crashes into the all time top three

Tom Holland’s latest Marvel adventure has now joined an elite group of films after weeks of box office dominance

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has officially climbed into the top three highest grossing films of all time at the worldwide box office, overtaking James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water after another enormous weekend in cinemas.

The Sony and Marvel Studios blockbuster has passed the $2.33bn mark globally, putting it ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water, which finished its theatrical run with approximately $2.32bn worldwide. The milestone places Tom Holland’s latest outing behind only Avatar and Avengers: Endgame on the all time worldwide chart.

The achievement marks another extraordinary stage in the theatrical run of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which has remained at the top of the North American box office for five consecutive weekends. The film added approximately $22m in the United States and Canada during its fifth weekend, taking its domestic total to $891m.

That domestic figure also puts the film within striking distance of another major record. Star Wars: The Force Awakens currently holds the unadjusted domestic record with $936m, leaving Spider-Man: Brand New Day roughly $45m away from taking the top position in the United States and Canada.

The global rise has been remarkably fast. The film crossed $1bn worldwide after only six days in cinemas, becoming the second fastest film ever to reach that figure behind Avengers: Endgame. It then crossed $2bn after only three weekends, becoming the eighth film in history to achieve that milestone.

Its opening had already established Spider-Man: Brand New Day as a historic theatrical release. The film opened to approximately $360m in the United States and Canada, surpassing the $357m debut of Avengers: Endgame to claim the biggest domestic opening weekend ever. Its worldwide opening reached approximately $932m, giving it the second biggest global debut in box office history.

The performance has also helped drive an unusually strong August for American cinemas. TheWrap reported that Spider-Man: Brand New Day accounted for approximately 62% of all domestic box office revenue during August through August 23, contributing $685m to the month's total at that point. Overall domestic grosses for August had already reached a record $1.1bn.

The film's success has further strengthened Tom Holland's position as one of the biggest current theatrical stars. His previous solo Marvel appearance, Spider-Man: No Way Home, opened to $260m domestically in December 2021 and ultimately became another major global hit.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now operating in an extremely rare group of blockbusters. Only Avatar, Avengers: Endgame and the newly surpassed Avatar: The Way of Water had previously occupied the top three positions in the worldwide box office rankings in the modern unadjusted chart.

The film still has room to climb. Its domestic total remains within reach of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, while its worldwide performance could determine how close it ultimately gets to the $2.7bn earned by Avengers: Endgame and the $2.9bn collected by Avatar.