Ever since the pandemic first took hold early last year, the theatrical industry has been struggling to maintain any level of sustained consistency, with annual takings down by tens of billions of dollars.
There’s been a few bright spots here and there, but for the most part a massive box office success is more of an outlier than a genuine return to form. However, Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to achieve more in the space of a few days than the majority of 2021’s releases accomplished in their entire theatrical runs.
Since the beginning of 2020, only five movies have managed to earn in excess of $500 million at the box office. Of those five, three of them played almost exclusively in China, to the extent that over 99% of their respective incomes came from local shores. Of the other two, No Time to Die and Fast & Furious 9 both enjoyed lucrative Chinese runs.
With that in mind, the fact that Spider-Man: No Way Home is now tracking to bring in at least half a billion dollars between Wednesday and Sunday is jaw-dropping. By the time the dust settles on today’s business, Tom Holland’s latest will probably be the highest-grossing domestic hit of 2021 and the sixth top-earner of the year, which is incredible under any circumstances.
