Although the general public has not yet seen “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, the movie is already shattering records. Having sold over 150,000 tickets in the first 24 hours of pre-sale in the United Kingdom alone, the latest Marvel movie is on track to be the largest box-office debut of the year.
The movie, which releases on Dec. 17 in the United States, has amassed tons of speculation as to what will happen in the film. After two trailers garnered over 140 million views, and after a series of film leaks, tickets went on sale on Nov. 29.
The film has already surpassed opening weekend ticket sales of “Avengers: Endgame”, as well as Tom Holland’s previous Spider-Man movie, “Spider-Man: Far From Home”. According to Box Office Pro, the film is projected to make over $200 million in its opening weekend, the first film to do so since “Avengers: Endgame”, which made an estimated $350 million during its opening weekend.
Due to such high demand, online ticket sites like Fandango and Regal crashed, and hundreds of showtimes have already been sold out.
Tom Holland’s first feature film as the web-slinger was in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” (2017), which made over $880 million. His second film, “Spider-Man: Far From Home” (2019) made even more with over $1 billion worldwide, making it the most profitable Marvel franchise other than “The Avengers” films. “Spiderman: No Way Home” marks the third film for lead actor Tom Holland in his Spider-Man trilogy.
Actors Alfred Molina, Willem Dafoe and Jamie Fox will return to their roles as the villains Doc. Ock, Green Goblin and Electrico. Actress Zendaya, actor Jacob Batalon and actor Benedict Cumberbatch will reprise their roles as MJ, Ned and Doctor Strange.
Fans also speculate if prior Spider-Man characters, played by actors Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield, will reprise their roles as two other Spider-Men in the film, possibly facing off against villains alongside Holland’s Spider-Man.
Other 2021 blockbusters like “No Time to Die”, “Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings”, “Black Widow” and “Eternals” showed a glimmer of hope for the revival of the movie-going experience. “Spider Man: No Way Home”, however, is the first pandemic blockbuster to break pre-ticket sale records on par with “Avengers: Endgame” and the entirety of the Star Wars sequel trilogy.
There are a multitude of reasons why the film has proven to be so successful even before its release, the most notable being that Spider-Man is a household name. The world witnessed the beginning of the Spider-Man superhero craze in 2002 when Tobey Maguire’s “Spider-Man” was released. The film made over $800 million and at the time it was the highest grossing superhero film ever made.
Similarly, Andrew Garfield’s portrayal of the character in his first Spider-Man film titled “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012) made over $750 million.
Ever since comic book writer Stan Lee created the character in 1962, Spider-Man has been portrayed in countless comics, films, video games and television shows. According to Inside the Magic, Spider-Man is officially the most valuable superhero ever created, with a copy of a comic book being sold for $3.6 million. This comic book, sold in September of this year, was the most expensive comic book ever sold.
The upcoming Spider-Man movie was filmed during the pandemic in a span of five months. The actors had to follow the CDC guidelines at all times. As one might imagine, doing all this while filming a multi-million dollar film was difficult, yet the film is on track to be the largest box-office debut of 2021.
Filming took place in both New York City and Atlanta. The budget for the film was about $200 million which is the most expensive Spider-Man movie of Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy, and is about $40 million more than “Spider-Man: Far From Home”, the second of Holland’s three movies. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is set to be 150 minutes long.
Copy edited by Jasper Smith
