I guess not even Spider-Man is strong enough to defeat The Force, as Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to reign at the #1 spot at the box office, but it comes in as the third-highest-grossing Christmas Day film, trailing behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($49.3M in 2015) and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker ($32.1M in 2019). For the record, Spider-Man earned $31.7M. Not only is COVID-19 a factor, but the fact that Christmas fell on a Saturday had a negative impact as well. Also… this is hardly a failure of any kind and No Way Home still accounted for 53% of the domestic box office for the weekend all on its own.
On top of that, No Way Home has crossed the $1 billion mark globally. In 12 days, this marks the third-fastest movie to reach this tally following Avengers: Endgame (five days) and Avengers: Infinity War (11 days). This is the first post-pandemic film to reach that milestone and it hasn’t even opened in China, the second-biggest market for U.S. movies in the world. This means that No Way Home is the #1 movie of 2021 and is also Sony’s second-highest-grossing movie behind Spider-Man: Far From Home. (I’m fairly certain that No Way Home will surpass that movie, based simply on the overwhelmingly positive response.)
For those with smaller children (or had already seen Spider-Man), the second highest-grossing movie of the holiday weekend was Sing 2. Obviously, this is an animated movie so it automatically appeals to kids, but for adults, this sequel boasts an all-star cast including Matthew McConaughey, Reese Witherspoon, Scarlett Johansson, Taron Egerton, Pharrell Williams, Halsey, Nick Offerman, and Bono.
The Matrix: Resurrections and The King’s Man were hampered by the fact that they aimed for the young male audience– the same audience that is still flocking to see No Way Home. In the case of The Matrix, it’s also available to stream at home for free on HBO Max.
Finally, in counterprogramming, Lionsgate’s faith-based American Underdog arrived at #4 to the underserved Christian audience. Unlike this weekend’s other releases, this one did not open on Wednesday, so its tally reflects that.
Check out the Top Five below”
- Spider-Man:No Way Home (Sony) – 3-day $81.5M / 5-day $138.6M / Total $467.3M Wk 2
- Sing 2 (Universal Pictures/Illuminations) – 3-day $23.76M / 5-day $41M Wk 1
- The Matrix: Resurrections (Warner Bros.) – 3-day $12M / 5-day $22.5M Wk 1
- American Underdog (Lionsgate) – 3-day $6.2M Wk 1
- The King’s Man (20th Century Studios/Disney) – 3-day $6.1M / 5-day $10M Wk 1
Like this weekend, next weekend boasts a holiday– New Year’s Eve/Day, so not much is coming out at theaters, as most people will be doing other things to celebrate, so expect Spider-Man to stay on top.
Will you be ringing in the New Year at the multiplex? If so, what will you be checking out?
