Spider-Man: No Way Home made an astounding $587 million in its opening weekend, lifting worldwide theaters into positive territory for the year. It is resounding success for Sony, the producing studio, which had already made two of the most profitable movies of the year: Venom: Let There Be Carnage and Ghostbusters Afterlife.
But now, the movie has a new foe it must defeat. In addition to the rogue’s gallery of villains in the film, Spider-Man will have to defeat the pandemic itself should it want to become the top move of the year. It’s not necessarily that the world will enter into a complete lockdown and clip Spider-Man’s theatrical run. Rather, Spider-Man is likely to run into regional shutdowns while life remains fairly normal in other locales. In New York City, for example, the city is on the verge of cataclysmic halts to regular life. Rules there are resulting in Broadway shutting down yet again. The country of Denmark has made the decision to mandate all movie theaters be closed. Yet in other locations around the world, life will go on without major disruption. If that also results in increased death or disease has yet to be seen… and since this isn’t a medical website, we’re making no prognostication.
As an example of how life will likely continue as normal in much of the world, just take a look at The Walt Disney Company’s decisions regarding Walt Disney World. There’s a new variant going around the world at breakneck speed, but isn’t dampening Mickey’s fun so far. The Mouse just extended Disney World park hours for the holidays. Let the good times roll, eh?
It is hard to predict what is going to happen. I think I have a pretty good idea of how this all plays out, but this isn’t the place for that kind of speculation. What is appropriate, though, is pondering just how this will impact Spider-Man: No Way Home and its attempt to hit a billion dollars in worldwide revenue. Without a pandemic ahead of it, there’s almost no way it would fail to hit the billion mark before New Year’s Day. That would make it the top-grossing movie for the year… and would frustrate China, a company that has been blocking Marvel movies in an attempt to manipulate the box office. Hitting a billion dollars in two weeks would be one heck of an accomplishment. But how afraid are people of omicron? How much is it going to affect their travel to movie theaters? And, perhaps more importantly, how many governments at the national, state, and local levels are going to shut down cinemas?
Omicron: European Box Office Hoping for a Christmas Miracle as Cinemas Close, Cases Rise https://t.co/UzQ3FBLRMH
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) December 20, 2021
It’s very hard to get a solid answer considering how odd the data is going to be. Facing the exact same issue, regions are going to respond in totally different manners. We could have a situation where there are pockets of zero ticket sales, while other regions see huge, record-breaking box office results. It’s just going to be so strange.
One thing is for sure in all of this confusion. You’d sure rather have Spider-Man’s opening date than Matrix Resurrections. You talk about drawing a bad card…
Let us know in the comments below what your thoughts are on the worldwide situation. Are you planning to go see a movie in the next two weeks? Are your theaters still open? Do you feel any apprehension?
