Jonathan Millar 
Anil Krishna 
James Oconner 
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Dominates Labor Day Box Office to Secure Historical Sixth Consecutive Victory
© Sony Pictures
Labor Day weekend turned out to be another very good one for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While most of the new wide releases struggled to make much of an impression, audiences kept going back to the movies they already knew, and Sony and Marvel’s latest Spider-Man film was once again the biggest beneficiary. The film made an estimated $23.5 million over the four-day holiday weekend, taking its domestic total to $923.2 million. Worldwide, it has now moved past $2.4 billion, which is pretty ridiculous territory for any movie.
More importantly, Brand New Day has now spent six consecutive weekends at No. 1. That’s not something that happens very often, especially with a movie this far into its theatrical run. The film is still pulling in enough people to stay comfortably ahead of the competition, even as newer titles arrive and disappear around it.
Spider-Man Is Getting Very Close to a Domestic Box Office Record
The six-week run puts Spider-Man: Brand New Day in some very select company. Only a handful of modern blockbusters, including Spider-Man: No Way Home and both Avatar movies, have managed the same feat. But the more interesting number right now is $13 million.
That’s roughly how much separates Brand New Day from Star Wars: The Force Awakens and its domestic record. If the current pace holds, Spider-Man should pass it sometime during the coming week and become the highest-grossing domestic release ever. At this point, it feels less like a question of whether the film will get there and more like a question of exactly when.
Holdovers Are Doing the Heavy Lifting
The weekend was a good reminder that audiences don’t always need something brand new to go to the movies. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey remained in second place during its eighth weekend, collecting another $17.3 million over the four-day period. Its domestic total has now reached $589 million, while the worldwide haul has climbed beyond $1.63 billion. For a movie that’s already been in theatres for eight weeks, those are some seriously strong numbers.
There were a few other interesting results lower down the chart too. Coyote vs. Acme, the long-delayed hybrid project, came in third with $14.5 million, bringing its 11-day total to $37 million. It’s now in a pretty good position to get past $50 million. Buddy also had an unusually strong holiday weekend, making $7.2 million and actually doing better than it did during its opening weekend. That’s a nice little sign that word-of-mouth is starting to work for the horror film.
Families, meanwhile, went for something much more familiar. Pixar’s Cars returned to theatres for its 20th anniversary and brought in $7.8 million from 2,900 screens. Apparently, people are still willing to watch Lightning McQueen on the big screen twenty years later. Fair enough.
New Releases Can’t Seem to Get Going
The story was very different for the new movies. Mark Wahlberg’s By Any Means was the best-performing newcomer, but even that film managed only $9.3 million over four days. It’s another disappointing result for Wahlberg, whose last four wide releases have all finished below $30 million domestically.
The other newcomers had an even tougher time. Lionsgate’s Fall 2: Deadpoint made just $2.8 million, while Adam Wingard’s A24 horror movie Onslaught brought in $2.3 million. Neither managed to break into the top ten. Ridley Scott’s The Dog Stars didn’t have much luck either, dropping 65 percent in its second weekend to $3.5 million.
So while the holiday weekend itself wasn’t disastrous for theatres, the new releases certainly didn’t provide much of the excitement. The older movies were doing most of the work, which is becoming an increasingly familiar box office story.
Practical Magic 2 Could Finally Knock Spider-Man Off the Top
That could change very soon. Warner Bros. is releasing Practical Magic 2 next week, with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman returning, and early tracking suggests it has a good chance of ending Brand New Day‘s six-week stay at No. 1.
There will be plenty of other competition as well. Focus Features is releasing The Uprising, starring Andrew Garfield, while Angel Studios has the action-comedy Runner and Briarcliff is bringing out the thriller The Fix. Whether any of them can make a serious dent in Spider-Man’s run is another matter, but after six straight weeks at the top, the box office is finally getting ready for a new No. 1.
Source: Rotten Tomatoes
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