By Janet H. Cho

Sony Pictures now has its biggest grossing film ever after the latest Spider-Man expanded its domination of the global box office for a third straight weekend.

Columbia Pictures' presentation of Marvel Studios' Spider-Man: Brand New Day sold another estimated $70 million of tickets at more than 4,500 North American locations this weekend, expanding its domestic total to more than $785.8 million in only three weekends.

Brand New Day, starring Tom Holland as a crime-fighting superhero the world has forgotten, performed even better internationally, selling another $118.7 million internationally. It has sold nearly $1.24 billion in ticket sales outside the U.S., including $210 million in China, to surpass $2.02 billion in global box office in only three weekends. The movie is distributed by Sony Pictures.

Rentrak's head of marketplace trends Paul Dergarabedian called it an "amazing milestone," in a social media post. "The film crosses $2 billion at the worldwide box office, achieving the milestone as the 2nd fastest film ever and only the 8th movie to do so overall. ... making it Sony's highest-grossing release ever." He said the haul puts the current film ahead of 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home.

For Hollywood, this weekend's estimated $160.1 million in domestic box office ticket sales brings the year to date box office take to nearly $6.87 billion, or 19.4% higher than at this point last year, according to Rentrak. Analysts say Hollywood has the potential to surpass $10 billion in revenue this year for the first time since the Covid-19 pandemic.

"$10 billion is absolutely in play," Dergarabedian told Barron's. The $6.87 billion in domestic box office through Sunday is more than $1.11 billion ahead of this point in 2025. With fall and holiday movies still to come and although there are never any guarantees, "reaching $10 billion has gone from something that looked aspirational earlier in the year to a very realistic possibility."

The summer box office since May 1 is at an estimated $4.24 billion through Sunday, up 23.6% from this point in 2025 and 5.7% higher than summer 2019, not adjusted for inflation. Summer box office typically accounts for about 40% of the year's total.

The summer box office is about $513.5 million below the record summer of about $4.76 billion in 2013.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened in China and South Korea the Wednesday before it opened July 31 in the U.S. and Japan. It opened with more than $360 million of ticket sales in North America, and is the second-fastest to surpass $2 billion worldwide since Walt Disney's Avengers: Endgame, which did so in 11 days in April 2019.

Avengers: Endgame eventually grossed $2.8 billion worldwide, and more than 69% of that came from outside the U.S., including $632.1 million from China, according to BoxOfficeMojo.

Sony's Spider-Man: No Way Home, grossed $814.9 million domestically and more than $1.92 billion in global box office, but never opened in China.

As with other major films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that generated the majority of their worldwide box office outside the U.S. and Canada, about 61% of Spider-Man: Brand New Day's worldwide box office is coming from international markets, Dergarabedian said. The global appeal of Spider-Man isn't surprising, but "what is extraordinary is the speed and scale of this performance."

As the first movie filmed entirely in IMAX 70mm, Odyssey sold another $37 million in IMAX global box office, including $13 million in its China debut, bringing its global total to $346.4 million. The Odyssey is now the highest grossing IMAX film of all time in 56 countries, and the first IMAX movie ever to exceed $300 million in global box office, according to Rentrak.

The two blockbusters overshadowed the other films that opened this weekend, including Warner Bros.' sci-fi thriller The End of Oak Street, and Paramount's PAW Patrol: The Dino Movie, which each opened in about 3,500 locations in North America.

The PG-13 rated End of Oak Street, starring Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor, about a cosmic event that transports a family's quiet suburban neighborhood to someplace unknown, sold $21 million to come in a distant third place this weekend. It sold another $26 million internationally for a $47 million global debut, according to Rentrak.

PAW Patrol, a PG-rated animated adventure about the team's rescue mission on a mysterious dinosaur island, came in fourth place with an estimated $20.5 million this weekend. It sold $48.5 million more internationally, for a $69 million weekend.

In eighth place, Disney Pixar's Toy Story 5 sold another $2.3 million, bringing its domestic total to $475.5 million and its worldwide total to $1.12 billion over nine weeks, making it the world's highest-grossing Toy Story movie. Disney has now surpassed $4 billion at the global box office for 2026.

Even if the summer of 2026 doesn't surpass the record summer of 2013, Dergarabedian said, the eclectic and interesting collection of films still to come could still add "meaningful business to an already very strong marketplace."

Among them is A24's Tony, the biographical drama about 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain discovering his passion for food in a Provincetown seaside kitchen. It opened to sold-out screenings in New York and Los Angeles on Aug. 7, and will expand nationwide on Friday, Aug. 21.

Warner Bros. Pictures' Coyote vs. Acme, an animated-live-action comedy distributed by Ketchup Entertainment, and Disney and Ridley Scott's The Dog Stars, a thriller about survivors in a post-apocalyptic world, both open on Aug. 28.

Combine those films with the continued strength of Spider-Man, The Odyssey, The End of Oak Street, Paw Patrol: The Dino Movie, and other films, and "we have a really strong and diverse lineup for the remainder of the summer," he said.

"That's really the key. You don't necessarily need another $100 million opening weekend if you have a broad collection of films generating business simultaneously and appealing to different audiences," Dergarabedian said. "I feel very confident that we're headed toward one of the biggest summer movie seasons of all time and certainly into the conversation for a top-five summer."

Write to Janet H. Cho at janet.cho@dowjones.com

This content was created by Barron's, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. Barron's is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 16, 2026 16:53 ET (20:53 GMT)