With great power comes great responsibility, and Spider-Man is once again being called upon to save Hollywood and movie theatres, with experts speculating on the epidemic era’s first probable billion-dollar hit.
“Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which opens in cinemas on Friday, is expected to do well at the box office, with some estimates putting the opening weekend in North America at $150 million or higher.
Despite the slow recovery of movie theatres this year, that would be Hollywood’s most successful opening since “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” in the heady days before the epidemic in December 2019.
Since then, no picture has made more than $100 million in its first weekend. “It’s been one stride ahead, two steps back for the sector all year,” said ComScore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.
“‘Spider- Man’s’ performance is really crucial.”
“Spider-Man: No Way Home” is Tom Holland’s third solo adventure as the enormously famous character, which has previously been portrayed by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
When it comes to large apertures, the webslinger is a pro.
In 2002, the first “Spider-Man” picture, starring Tobey Maguire, became the first film in cinema history to make more than $100 million in its opening weekend.
Holland gushed about the film’s “nostalgia, the conclusion of three series, the celebration of cinema” on the red carpet at the global premiere in Los Angeles on Monday.
The narrative begins up immediately after the events of 2019’s “Far from Home,” in which the evil Mysterio publicly exposed Peter Parker.
With the assistance of another well-known Marvel movie character, Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange, Parker tries to reclaim his obscurity.
“Really, Batman, Superman, and the X-Men are the only other series that have gone this far — this is the ninth episode,” said Franchise Entertainment Research analyst David A. Gross.
“It’s simply enormously popular. As a result, we’re in for a tremendous weekend.”
Despite the fact that 2021 is on track to nearly double the box office take of last year’s annus horribilis, there have been more flops than hits. Films aimed at a more mature audience, such as Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” from last weekend, have mostly underperformed.
Even the usually dependable Marvel superhero series has faltered, following an unparalleled run of billion-dollar-grossing films that culminated with 2019’s temporary record-breaking “Avengers: Endgame.”
