How else could Spider-Man: No Way Home follow up its record-breaking box office run other than by repeating the feat on digital platforms as well. Having not only been the first Hollywood release in two years to break the $1 billion mark, and do it in style, the epic, multiverse-spanning superhero movie has now taken a staggering $800 million at the domestic box office and has played in cinemas longer than any other movie released since the start of the Covid pandemic. Now, in its first week on home digital release, the movie has smashed another record by having the highest recorded first week sales in that medium too.
Spider-Man: No Way Home was one of the movies delayed by the Covid pandemic, with Sony and Marvel Studios anxious for the blockbuster to be seen only in cinemas first, but not wanting the movie’s performance to suffer as a result of pandemic worries or restrictions. Although the delay in the release of the movie allowed the studios to hype up the universe crossovers featured in the latest outing for Tom Holland as Peter Parker, it is likely that the film would have been a monster smash whenever it was released.
Now, while the movie is still playing in cinemas over three months on from its mid-December release date, Deadline have reported that its digital release recently saw it rack up over 2.1 million units of U.S. sales in its first week, equating to an estimated $42 million. While this is not something that has come out of the blue, it is fair to say that the massive return from home media sales has simply strengthened the case for multiverse movies with in the Marvel Cinematic Universe being a huge draw for fans.
Spider-Man: No Way Home Broke The Pandemic’s Hold on the Box Office
Following the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home, it very quickly became apparent that pandemic or no pandemic people were determined to see the latest MCU outing of Spider-Man in cinemas as soon as it was released. In less than two weeks, No Way Home pulled in more than James Bond movie No Time to Die, the previous highest grossing Hollywood movie of the year, took in its entire cinematic run. Within a month, the film was heading up the all-time biggest movie charts, passing the likes of Titanic, Avengers: Infinity War, and on the domestic box office chart, Avatar, to take a place as one of the highest grossing movies of all time.
This year so far, there have been a handful of breakaway movies that have continued to be big pulls at the box office despite the ongoing pandemic guideline changes. The Batman recently passed the box office total of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and is currently the highest grossing movie of the year in worldwide figures with just under $700 million, which again is no mean feat at this time. With the Marvel multiverse playing an even bigger role in the upcoming Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, all eyes are on that movie to see if Marvel can have the first billion dollar movie of the year and continue their amazing run.