Spider-Man: No Way Home Becomes First Movie To Gross US$1 Billion Worldwide In Pandemic Era

Spider-Man: No Way Home hit a home-run over the Christmas weekend by becoming the first COVID-19 pandemic era movie to cross the US$1 billion (S$1.35 bil) mark at the global box-office — with US$1.05 billion.

Variety reported that the third solo Spidey movie — starring Tom Holland and jointly produced by Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios — tied with 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens to be the third-fastest film to join the billion-dollar club. No Way Home was fast but wasn’t fast enough to beat 2018’s Avengers: Infinity War and 2019’s Avengers: Endgame — they crossed the 10-figure mark in 11 and five days, respectively.

And what is the year’s second-highest-grossing Hollywood film? Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing, No Time to Die, took home US$774 million.

Pre-pandemic, the last Hollywood movie to make more than US$1 billion globally was 2019's Star War: The Rise of Skywalker with US$1.07 billion.

What made No Way Home’s feat so remarkable amid a surge in the Omicron variant of the COVID-19. Daniel Craig’s final Bond outing, No Time to Die, managed US$774 million worldwide. On top of that, the Jon Watt-directed movie achieved it without playing in China, aka the world’s biggest moviegoing market. No Way Home narrowly edged out the year’s global box-office champ, the three-hour China war pic The Battle at Lake Changjin.

Post-No Way Home, Sony and the Disney-owned Marvel are planning more Holland-fronted Spider-Man movies. Speaking to the New York Times, Marvel boss Kevin Feige said he and No Way Home producer Laura Pascal are “actively beginning to develop where the story heads next, which I only say outright because I don’t want fans to go through any separation trauma like what happened after Far From Home.”

That “separation trauma” happened in August 2019 when it Sony and Disney reportedly had a falling out — shortly after the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home — over how Far From Home’s earnings would be shared between the studios.

Feige added, “That will not be occurring this time.”

Meanwhile, Sony is hoping No Way Home’s success will spill over to its next Holland-starring offering, Uncharted, based on the popular video game. That movie, which also stars Mark Wahlberg and Antonio Banderas, opens on Feb 17 in Singapore, a day before its US launch.