Among those looking for a hero as the pandemic suppresses business revenue is the movie theater industry, which might have found one in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Sony projects a take over the three-day opening weekend of least $130 million in the US and Canada, Deadline reports. Record presale figures are pushing other industry predictions closer to $175 million, possibly even $200 million. Overseas markets could add more than $160 million. It's all sparked what earlier might have sounded like crazy talk: Maybe this Spider-Man could eventually bring in a cool billion.
It would be the first release during the pandemic to hit that mark. Venom: Let There Be Carnage came closest, after a $90 million US opening in October. But No Way Home "isn’t just the most anticipated movie of the holiday season, it's the most anticipated movie of the year," said Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations, per CNBC. "As we've seen from countless other superhero flicks in 2021, audiences will not only break the box office opening weekend, but have legs for months."
Even a $100 million debut "would be a big win for theater owners and mark another step in the long-term box office recovery process," said Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Box Office Pro. He thinks $1 billion is reachable, per Variety, but warns that different markets are bouncing back from COVID-19 outbreaks at different rates. And the effects of omicron are an unknown. Behind all the financial talk is a film, which is drawing interest because so many reviewers like it. It's starting out stronger on Rotten Tomatoes than any of Sony's previous live-action Spider-Man flicks. (More box office stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
