If it felt like everyone you know was at the movies this weekend, it’s because they probably were.
Theaters just had the biggest box office weekend in history. Powered by the premiere of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, theaters across North America brought in roughly $430 million, breaking the previous record set during Avengers: Endgame‘s opening weekend in 2019 of $402 million.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day led the charge. The latest Tom Holland-led Marvel film opened to a record $360 million in North America — the biggest domestic opening ever — while earning nearly $930 million worldwide in its first weekend. The Odyssey kept its momentum going with another huge weekend, capping off at $911 million globally — making this the most successful of Nolan’s career.
The numbers push back on a narrative that’s followed Hollywood for years. Ever since streaming became the default, theaters have been treated like a relic. Every disappointing blockbuster fueled another round of “movies are dead” discourse. This weekend was a reminder that the 2023 summer of Barbenheimer wasn’t a fluke — give people something worth leaving the couch for, and they’ll leave the couch.
It’s also worth noting this wasn’t just one giant superhero weekend. Spider-Man and The Odyssey couldn’t be more different: one is a Marvel blockbuster — the fourth in Holland’s solo series — while the other is a nearly three-hour adaptation of an ancient Greek epic. Different movies — with, strikingly, a near-identical cast in Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal — and both became must-see events regardless.
