Just over one week ago, asking whether Spider-Man: Brand New Day could become the highest-grossing box office movie of all time would have sounded absurdly premature.
After approximately $1.35 billion at the worldwide box office, it might be time to start asking the question.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has continued its extraordinary theatrical performance following its record-breaking opening weekend, with Global Box Office reporting Friday that the Tom Holland-led movie had reached approximately $1.35 billion worldwide.
SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY ($1.35bn) has officially surpassed both DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE ($1.33bn) and BLACK PANTHER ($1.34bn) this morning.
The @Sony‘s film is now the 6th highest-grossing MCU installment of all time. pic.twitter.com/YeuAbdeslX
— Global Box Office (@GlobalBoxOffice) August 7, 2026
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That puts Brand New Day past the lifetime grosses of both Deadpool & Wolverine and Black Panther and makes it the sixth-highest-grossing Marvel Cinematic Universe movie ever released.
“The Sony’s film is now the 6th highest-grossing MCU installment of all time.”
Those are impressive milestones.
But they aren’t really the story anymore.
The story is how quickly Brand New Day is accumulating that money—and whether its extraordinary pace can continue long enough to put the biggest box office records in Hollywood history within reach.
The Road to Avatar
The target is James Cameron’s Avatar.
Following its original theatrical run and subsequent re-releases, Avatar has accumulated approximately $2.92 billion worldwide, making it the highest-grossing movie in history.
That means Spider-Man: Brand New Day, currently sitting around $1.35 billion, still needs approximately $1.57 billion to catch Cameron’s blockbuster.
A screenshot from Avatar: The Way of Water – YouTube, Avatar
Put another way, Spider-Man isn’t even halfway there yet. That sounds like an overwhelming obstacle, because it is.
Brand New Day essentially needs to make another entire Black Panther—and then another $200 million or so—just to get into Avatar’s neighborhood.
But there is one crucial factor that makes the question more interesting than the raw $1.57 billion gap might suggest:
Brand New Day has been playing in theaters for barely more than a week. The question isn’t simply how much money Spider-Man has made. It’s how much theatrical runway remains.
Spider-Man Is Already Destroying Lifetime Box Office Totals
Consider what Brand New Day has already accomplished.
Deadpool & Wolverine finished its enormously successful theatrical run with approximately $1.338 billion worldwide. Black Panther earned approximately $1.35 billion during its original theatrical run.
Brand New Day has already surpassed both.
(L-R): Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool/Wade Wilson and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine/Logan in 20th Century Studios/Marvel Studios’ DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE. Photo by Jay Maidment. ©: Xbox Source Says No Full-Time Staff Were Laid Off at Halo Studios, Only Contractors
The movie is now rapidly approaching Avengers: Age of Ultron, which earned approximately $1.405 billion worldwide, and the original The Avengers, which earned approximately $1.519 billion.
Spider-Man needs only around $55 million to pass Age of Ultron and approximately $169 million to pass The Avengers. Assuming the movie doesn’t suddenly collapse at the box office, both appear to be achievable.
That would leave only three MCU movies ahead of it:
- Spider-Man: No Way Home at approximately $1.921 billion.
- Avengers: Infinity War at approximately $2.052 billion.
- Avengers: Endgame at approximately $2.799 billion.
Suddenly, we have a roadmap.
First Stop: $2 Billion
Before anyone seriously discusses Avatar, Brand New Day needs to prove that its extraordinary opening wasn’t simply the result of massive front-loading.
The first real test is $2 billion.
Only a handful of movies have ever crossed that threshold.
[caption id="attachment_63106" align="alignnone" width="1280"]
Peter Parker/Spider-Man in the trailer for Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Sony, YouTube
Brand New Day currently needs approximately another $650 million to get there.
That’s a tremendous amount of money, but considering the movie has already earned roughly twice that amount in barely more than a week, $2 billion is no longer an unreasonable target.
Passing Spider-Man: No Way Home would put Brand New Day at roughly $1.92 billion. At that point, Infinity War and $2 billion would be directly in front of it.
And if Brand New Day blows through those barriers while continuing to demonstrate strong theatrical legs, the conversation changes again.
Because the next target isn’t another ordinary blockbuster.
It’s Endgame.
Endgame Is The Real MCU Test
Before Avatar, there’s Avengers: Endgame.
The 2019 culmination of Marvel’s Infinity Saga finished its theatrical run with approximately $2.799 billion worldwide, temporarily surpassing Avatar to become the highest-grossing movie in history.
It took a subsequent Avatar re-release for James Cameron’s movie to reclaim the crown.
For Brand New Day to catch Endgame, it needs approximately another $1.45 billion from its current position.
Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man in Avengers: Endgame (2019), Marvel Studios
That’s an enormous number.
In fact, it’s more money than nearly every superhero movie ever made has earned during its entire theatrical run.
So let’s be clear: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is not currently on the verge of passing Endgame. But that’s also why the next couple of weekends matter so much.
If Spider-Man reaches $2 billion relatively quickly and continues producing strong weekend holds afterward, the seemingly enormous gap between it and Endgame begins shrinking rapidly.
If it starts dropping like a typical front-loaded franchise blockbuster, however, the record chase could end just as quickly.
Legs Matter More Than the Opening Now
Opening weekends generate headlines. But legs generate all-time records.
That’s particularly important when discussing Avatar.
James Cameron’s movie did not become the highest-grossing movie in history because it produced the biggest opening weekend anyone had ever seen.
A screenshot from Avatar: The Way of Water – YouTube, Avatar
Its original domestic opening was approximately $77 million. What followed was extraordinary.
Avatar remained a theatrical event for months.
Audiences continued showing up week after week. Repeat viewings helped drive the phenomenon, while international markets turned the movie into a global juggernaut.
Its international performance was particularly important, eventually accounting for well over $2 billion of its worldwide box office following subsequent releases.
That’s the standard Brand New Day ultimately has to approach.
It doesn’t merely need enormous weekends.
It needs staying power.
Spider-Man Has One Major Advantage Going Forward
There’s another reason to watch the movie’s upcoming performance closely.
Brand New Day opened without access to IMAX screens because Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey had control of the premium format.
Spider-Man has now begun gaining access to IMAX digital screens.
Spider-Man vs. The Punisher in the Brand New Day trailer- Sony, YouTube
That gives Sony’s blockbuster an additional premium-format revenue source during the portion of its theatrical run when major releases would normally begin losing screens.
Whether that produces a meaningful boost remains to be seen, but it’s certainly not a disadvantage for a movie already performing at this level.
And if premium screens help Brand New Day maintain stronger-than-normal holds, its potential ceiling becomes even more difficult to predict.
What Would Spider-Man Actually Need to Beat Avatar?
The math is straightforward.
- Avatar: approximately $2.92 billion.
- Avengers: Endgame: approximately $2.80 billion.
- Spider-Man: Brand New Day: approximately $1.35 billion and counting.
Spider-Man therefore needs roughly another $1.45 billion to catch Endgame and another $1.57 billion to challenge Avatar.
That’s why declaring Brand New Day the future box office champion right now would be ridiculous. There’s simply too much theatrical run remaining and too much money still required.
The Hulk in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer – Sony Pictures Entertainment, YouTube
But dismissing the possibility outright may be equally premature.
If Brand New Day crosses $2 billion and still has substantial theatrical momentum, we’re no longer talking about whether it can become one of the biggest movies ever made.
It already will be.
At that point, the question becomes whether it can find another $800-$900 million.
That’s still a massive mountain, but it would be a much more interesting mountain than the one we’re looking at today.
Watch the Second and Third Weekends
The next two weekends could tell us almost everything we need to know.
If Brand New Day suffers major percentage drops domestically and internationally, then its gigantic opening will increasingly look like a massive rush of demand that burned itself out early.
That’s common with franchise blockbusters.
The Hand in Spider-Man: Brand New Day – Sony, YouTube
If its declines remain relatively modest, however, then something different may be happening.
That would suggest Brand New Day is expanding beyond opening-weekend Spider-Man and Marvel fans and reaching the broader casual audience necessary to produce a historic theatrical run.
The latter is exactly what Spider-Man needs if he has any chance of chasing James Cameron.
Could It Really Happen?
Right now? Maybe.
That’s about as definitive as anyone should be willing to get.
There is an enormous difference between a movie making $1.35 billion and a movie making nearly $3 billion.
Avatar didn’t become the biggest movie in history accidentally. Its international performance and almost unprecedented theatrical staying power created a standard that virtually every blockbuster released since has failed to approach.
A screenshot from Avatar: The Way of Water – YouTube, Avatar
Even Spider-Man: No Way Home, arguably one of the biggest theatrical events of the modern superhero era, finished approximately $1 billion behind Avatar’s current total.
Brand New Day therefore has an enormous amount left to prove. But there’s something equally important happening here.
We’re actually having this conversation after roughly one week.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already passed the complete theatrical runs of Deadpool & Wolverine and Black Panther. It’s closing in on Age of Ultron and The Avengers. No Way Home and Infinity War are now legitimate targets further up the chart.
Tom Holland as Spider-Man in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day trailer – Sony Pictures Entertainment, YouTube
If it reaches $2 billion with significant momentum remaining, Endgame comes into focus.
And if it somehow reaches Endgame while still selling tickets? Then there is only one movie left.
Avatar.
The odds may still favor James Cameron keeping his crown. But Spider-Man: Brand New Day has already done enough at the box office to make the chase worth watching.
How high do you think Spider-Man will climb at the box office? Sound off and let us know!
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