Spider-Man: Brand New Day is setting brand new highs for box-office success, having earned a record $72 million in previews.
That staggering amount includes screenings from Thursday and early access screenings from Wednesday, according to Variety, which reported the news. The previous record-holder, 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, made $60 million in Thursday previews before landing the biggest opening weekend of all time, with $357 million domestically and $1.2 billion globally, the magazine added.
By Friday, Brand New Day had collected $16 million in box office receipts, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That strong start has Sony Pictures projecting $325 million for the film’s opening weekend, which would be the second-highest domestic launch ever, behind only Avengers: Endgame.
By comparison, 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming opened to $117 million domestically and has earned $334 million in its lifetime, 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home opened to $93 million and has earned $391 million, and 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home opened to $260 million and has earned $805 million, according to Box Office Mojo.
The box office win comes despite a high-quality bootleg video of the film leaking on X on Friday, as Variety reported separately. That video was online for more than nine hours, reached at least 5.9 million accounts, and got more than 143,000 likes and more than 10,000 shares, according to the outlet.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day was written by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers and directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. Tom Holland once again plays Peter Parker, the titular superhero, with Zendaya reprising her role as MJ Jones-Watson and Jacob Batalon again portraying Ned Leeds.
Other MCU figures appearing in the film include Jon Bernthal as Frank Castle a.k.a. the Punisher, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner a.k.a. the Hulk, Michael Mando as Mac Gargan a.k.a. the Scorpion, while Sadie Sink and Tramell Tillman are other big names in the cast.
“It’s a Brand New Day for Peter Parker,” Marvel says in a logline. “Fighting crime full-time as Spider-Man in a world that doesn’t remember him — and the pressure of seeing his old friends move on without him — sparks a change in Peter he may not have the power to control. But that transformation might also be the only thing that can stop a shocking new threat to the city and those he loves — a powerful villain no one can even see.”
As of the time of this writing, Spider-Man: Brand New Day boasts a 90% Tomatometer rating and a 98% Popcornmeter rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a Metascore of 66 out of 100 on Metacritic.