Spider-Man is the biggest name on earth right now.
His new film, “Brand New Day,” earned $1.15 billion at the global box office in its opening week, according to Box Office Mojo. That’s more than one-third of what Vail Resorts made in all of 2025.
I’ve got a theory on why Spidey rules the world today. First, it has been five years since the last installment. Fans of the franchise are ready. Second, “Brand New Day” is a prime example of the perfect Marvel movie. They go something like this:
A flawed but likeable hero enlists the help of friends, super and not, to wreck, mangle and swing their way through CGI locales, doing battle with a mysterious foe whose motives are honorable but obviously flawed.
That doesn’t mean it is a perfect movie, just that it is a perfect example of what this brand does so well.
It doesn’t hurt that Tom Holland, as Spidey, and Zendaya, as MJ, are two of the most bankable stars in Hollywood right now. When you plug their wattage into the Marvel machine, it’s no wonder the end credits promise a fifth installment coming soon (but only after the next Avengers flick, “Doomsday,” due out on Dec. 18).
As one Sony exec said on opening weekend, “So I guess movies aren’t dead after all.”
Not this kind of movie. After 24 years and 11 standalone films, including cartoons, the friendly neighborhood spider is the superstar of superheroes, and wherever he goes super-revenue follows. Three of the four Holland films have topped $1 billion each.
So what’s different with this one? “Brand New Day” flips the script on previous Spidey movies – but only slightly – in two fun ways. The first has to do with the girl. Peter Parker is still in love with MJ, like always, and she still sees right past him, like almost always, except this time HE is to blame. In “No Way Home,” he promised to keep her safe by disappearing from her memory. The mechanics of how don’t really matter. It’s the outcome that matters, and this film constantly reminds us that being a superhero is a super-liability.
Spidey has made his choice, but he hasn’t moved on. The first half of this film follows the World’s Saddest Superhero as he watches MJ and his best friend, Ned, go to college, throw parties, and build an app to track the friend they forgot they knew. These scenes are more “high school emo” than “Bruce Wayne angst,” except when Parker’s spider side overwhelms his human side. His eyes go black and his webs go haywire, setting up a plot point about DNA inhibitors that could be a cautionary tale against pharmaceuticals. (Except for the Hulk, who will always Hulk Out, the film barely comments on the rights and wrongs of inhibiting the stuff that makes you, you.)
It’s hard to talk about the second way this film flips the script without giving up the name of the mystery foe, but I’ll keep things vague. For the first time in many Marvel movies, the chase scenes in “Brand New Day” feel fresh and new and visceral. The camera follows Spidey as he webs his way through the city tracking a villain who can hop between heads, meaning the bad guy is never who he expects it to be. Often, it is an innocent bystander, like a bewildered construction worker sprinting through traffic, or a little old lady smashing through walls in an armored tank.
In one scene, just before we meet the foe, the innocent is more than a bystander. This revelation sets up the second half of the movie and, I would guess, the next installment in this franchise, plus the next reboot of another franchise you can probably guess. (Hint: It’s the only Marvel brand with more live-action films than Spidey.)
Will “Brand New Day” make another $1 billion and become the biggest Spidey film of all time? It’s too early to say. Like so many Marvel movies, I personally don’t need to see it again for another few years. The summer blockbuster might not be dead, but Marvel’s brand of movie magic, with its bottomless well of familiar formula, is still no more filling than popcorn.