Sony’s Spidey senses were right on the money.
The Marvel comic book adventure film Spider-Man: No Way Home” generated more than $253 million from 4,336 theaters in North America, Variety reported.
Overseas the movie also made history, grossing $334.2 million for a global total of $587.2 million, making it the third-largest global opening in history, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Avengers: Endgame” in 2019 (at $357 million) and “Avengers: Infinity War” in 2018 ($257.6 million) opened to larger numbers, CNN reported.
“No Way Home” is easily the best domestic opening of the COVID-19 pandemic era. No other film during the pandemic had topped more than $100 million in a single weekend, Variety reported.
Previously, the biggest debut belonged to Sony’s comic book sequel “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which generated $90 million in its initial release, according to Variety.
The film stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker and Zendaya as MJ, and they spend the movie battling villains from three generations of “Spider-Man” movies: Willem Dafoe (2002′s “Spider-Man”), Alfred Molina (2004′s “Spider-Man 2″) and Jamie Foxx (2014′s “The Amazing Spider-Man 2″), according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to Holland and Zendaya, the film stars Benedict Cumberbatch, Jacob Batalon, Marisa Tomei, Jon Favreau and Benedict Wong.
“Movie theaters have been looking for a hero and Spider-Man swung in and saved the day,” Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore, told CNN. “As arguably the most important weekend in box-office history, the implications of ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’s’ performance cannot be overstated in terms of its ability to change a narrative. It reaffirms the movie theater’s place as one of the most viable, relevant, and beloved entertainment institutions.”