$932M OPENING... SO WHAT?
History Would Like a Word...
SPIDER-MAN BRAND NEW DAY'S Worldwide numbers are staggering. But it's the $360M Record Breaking Domestic Opening that really got me thinking. There is no doubt SPIDER-MAN: Brand New Day deserves its due. It's a great movie, but being released in 2026 sure helps. Yes, Spider-Man is a Worldwide hit, but is it really all that impressive compared to movies from the past?
Let's Start with the fact that Thursday Preview day had DOUBLE the screens normally reserved for a movie. That definitely helped it break the domestic record. But what do the numbers over the years tell us? We'll be looking at the following:
- 1977 Star Wars
- 1982 ET
- 1997 Titanic
- 1999 Star Wars The Phantom Menace
- 2015 Star Wars the Force Awakens
- 2026 Spider-Man: Brand New Day
These movies were chosen because they were pop culture phenomenon that took the country by storm much as Spider-Man has. Advantage the newer movies the further back we go. Starting with Population. We'll be looking at Domestic numbers since Worldwide ticket sales are a newer phenomenon. This is the United States Population in the given years:
- 1977: 220 Million
- 1982: 231 Million
- 1997: 272 Million
- 1999: 279 Million
- 2015: 321 Million
- 2026: 349 Million
Obviously more people means a larger pool of potential movie goers. But let's take a look at the number of screens movies could play on.
- 1977 14,000
- 1982 18,000
- 1999 37,000
- 2015 40,000
- 2026 35,000
Note, there were actually a drop in Movie Screens following the pandemic, which is an edge to Spider-Man. How about their opening weekends including inflation?
- 1977 Star Wars - $1,554,475 - Adj. Inflation $8,576,209 (To be fair Star Wars only opened in 43 theaters)
- 1982 ET - $11,835,389 - Adj. Inflation $41,010,665 (opened in 1,103 theaters but only about 2,500 screens)
- 1997 Titanic - $28,638,131 - Adj. Inflation $59,657,524 (opened in 2,674 theaters about 5,000 screens
- 1999 Star Wars Phantom Menace - $64,820,970 - Adj. Inflation $130,120,971 (opened in 2,970 theaters about 6,000 screens)
- 2015 Star Wars The Force Awakens - $247,966,675 - Adj. Inflation $349,828,862 (opened in 4,134 theaters and over 12,000 screens
- 2026 Spiderman Brand New Day - $360,000,000 (Opened in 4,487 theaters and 15,000 screens)
Looking at these numbers, it's obvious that given a similar number of screens and showings and population, when compared with inflation, Star Wars The Force Awakens easily beats Spider-Man and The Phantom Menace isn't fare behind. ET had access to 119 Million less people and still would have had a $220M weekend without taking that into consideration. Let's take a look at all time numbers including Spiderman's Projected.
- 1977 Star Wars $307,263,857 - Adj. Inflation - $1,695,208,483. Yes that is 1.6 Billion in 1,000 theaters and only about 2,000 screens. Now to be fair, Star Wars ran in some theaters for nearly a year. But considering there were 129 Million less people in the country, let's just call that number about even.
- 1982 ET $359,000,000 - Adj. Inflation - $1,243,966,621. E.T. comes out under Star Wars. ET also ran for about a year, but people have to remember there was no real secondary movie market at that time. No Streaming or video. There was HBO, but for the most part once a movie left theaters, you didn't get to watch it again unless it was aired on TV.
-1999 Star Wars The Phantom Menace $431,100,000 - Adj. Inflation - $865,385,856. Not so hot Domestically, not only was The Phantom Menace a bit of a disappointment back home, but this is where world wide audiences are beginning to come into the picture. This movie would make 1.8B worldwide when adjusted for inflation. Perhaps TITANIC should have been considered in 1997. It earning $1.8B worldwide, which adjusted for today would be $3.8B But Titanic would earn $1.25B in the U.S. with inflation just edging it out over ET
- 2015 Star Wars The Force Awakens $936,662,225 - Adj. Inflation - $1.3B which just edges out Titanic :)
- 2026 Spider-Man Brand new day has doubled it's opening, so let's double it's domestic box office and say the movie will break Avenger's Endgame domestic and make $900M? When you consider inflation, Spider-Man's opening is impressive world-wide, but not that impressive in the U.S. when you consider inflation, population and screens. Let's take a look:
Best Openings domestic:
1. Star Wars The Force Awakens $418M (Adjusted)
2. Spiderman Brand New Day $360M
3. Star Wars The Phantom Menace $288M (Adjusted)
4. ET $240M (Adjusted)
5. Titanic $180M (Adjusted)
6. Star Wars 1977 (Not fair to judge too small of theaters)
Final Tally on what the movies earned overall domestic?
1. Star Wars 1977 - $1.69B (Adjusted)
2. Star Wars The Force Awakens - $1.3B (Adjusted)
3. Titanic - $1.25B (Adjusted)
4. E.T - $1.2B (Adjusted)
5. Spider-Man: Brand New Day - $900M (Projected)
6. Star Wars The Phantom Menace - $865M (Adjusted)
So as you can see, SPIDER-MAN: BRAND NEW DAY is only 5th on this list of 6 movies when you consider inflation. This list may have looked differently had we included ENDGAME or AVATAR, which were also huge moments in movie history, but I think this list shows you that just because you break records in 2026, it doesn't mean you are an all-timer. The only number people care about these days is worldwide, and while that's fair, history still has something to say about what movie is THE GOAT. And in America at least, this movie might not end up in the top 10... as impressive as that is.
