Spider-Man: Brand New Day makes Ksh121B at box office in second biggest opening weekend in history
By The Guardian, August 4, 2026Spider-Man: Brand New Day brought in a blockbuster $932m (Ksh121 billion) in worldwide ticket sales to deliver the second most lucrative opening weekend of all time.
Final figures showed the film was the biggest ever at the North American box office, with a total of $360m (Ksh47 billion). This puts it just ahead of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame with $357m (Ksh47 billion), not adjusted for inflation.
The movie, which marks actor Tom Holland’s fourth outing as the web-slinging superhero, depicts Peter Parker fighting crime in a world that has forgotten he is Spider-Man. Zendaya, who is married to Holland, co-stars as MJ, the love of Parker’s life. The film explores Parker’s struggles with loneliness and his pursuit of human connection.
Initial estimates suggested that Spider-Man: Brand New Day had grossed $927m (Ksh120 billion) worldwide and $355m (Ksh46 billion)in the US and Canada, meaning that it was not thought to have dislodged Avengers: Endgame on home territory, but when final figures came in, the total was revised upwards.
Internationally, Spider-Man: Brand New Day grossed $572m (Ksh74 billion), with China leading international markets with $121m in ticket sales. In Australia, it had the biggest opening weekend of 2026, making $21.4m.
Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige called it “a truly phenomenal opening”.
Largest openings of all time
Marvel Studios now boasts the four largest openings of all time at the global box office (not adjusted for inflation): Avengers: Endgame ($1.22 billion), Spider-Man: Brand New Day ($932 million), Avengers: Infinity War ($640 million) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($600m) (Ksh78 billion).
Tom Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group, described Spider-Man: Brand New Day as “fundamentally a movie about friendship, about the balm of connection in all our lives, and that is resonant to audiences of all ages and all around the world.”
Spider-Man is one of the most popular of Marvel’s comic book characters, with a cinematic appeal that endures even as audiences have shown signs of fatigue with the superhero genre. The latest instalment has been well-received, scoring a 90 per cent rating from critics and 98 per cent approval from movie-goers on Rotten Tomatoes.
Greg Durkin, the founder and CEO of the entertainment research firm Enact Insight, told Reuters that the movie’s central themes of loneliness and isolation, and triumphing over drama, resonated especially with Gen Z audiences.
“There’s a mental health crisis now with young people in our country — it’s especially acute for young men right now. There’s a friendship crisis,” Durkin said. “The pandemic created a bunch of shock wave effects that we haven’t fully documented, much less addressed. This movie touches on some really important themes.“
The performance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day fuels an already-robust summer box office, which has been buoyed by such major releases as Toy Story 5 and The Odyssey.
Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said on Sunday that the combination of Spider-Man: Brand New Day with The Odyssey created the “all-time biggest domestic weekend” in movie theatres.
Actors Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal appear in both movies.
“There’s no better lead-in to this movie than The Odyssey,” Dergarabedian said. “Think of how many people around the world were in movie theatres being exposed to trailers marketing for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.”
The overall 2026 domestic box office performance remains below pre-pandemic levels. Year-to-date receipts are up 10% from last year, but 16% below 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, according to Rentrak.