It’s finally happening, and nobody, I mean nobody saw this coming: Sony/Marvel’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day is hitting $900 million at the domestic box office Friday, the second movie after to do so after Disney/Lucasfilm’s 2015 title Star Wars: The Force Awakens and the fastest-ever to that threshold. All this just as summer’s final weekend gets underway.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings past the nine-century mark in 36 days, compared with Force Awakens’ 50 days. The next record for the Tom Holland-Zendaya-Sadie Sink movie: becoming the highest-grossing movie ever at the domestic box office, unseating Force Awakens ($936.6M). The Destin Daniel Cretton-directed crowdpleaser is expected to do around $18M for the Friday-Monday stretch, per sources.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day ends its fifth week with $30.4M for a running cume through Thursday of $899.7M.
RELATED: ‘The Odyssey’ Sails Past Another Milestone, Crosses $1B At International Box Office
Meanwhile, Paramount began previews Thursday for the Elegance Bratton-directed R-rated action thriller By Any Means, starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. It did $725,000 at 2,350 theaters. The 1960s-set period title, which was financed by Hammerstone for $29M, is a straight distribution deal for the Melrose Avenue lot in its efforts under the David Ellison administration to provide more movies to cinemas. Its four-day outlook is $6M-$8M.
By Any Means, produced by Thunder Road, is inspired by a true story and follows a young Black FBI agent (Abdul-Mateen) who is sent into 1960s Mississippi to investigate a wave of brutal killings targeting civil rights leaders. Forced to work alongside notorious mafia hitman Greg Scarpa (Wahlberg), he finds himself pulled into a deadly hunt where justice and vengeance begin to blur. When the system is broken, two men divided by everything agree on one thing: the law has limits. They don’t.
RELATED: 48 Of The Most Anticipated Movies Of 2026
Preview comps here for By Any Means are Dog Stars ($850K preview, $8M opening), Roofman ($950K, $8.1M) and Wahlberg’s Arthur the King ($830K, $7.6M). Critics aren’t wild about By Any Means, giving it a 58% score on Rotten Tomatoes. Why is it here on the calendar? Because distributors typically try to lure the older adult crowd over the Labor Day stretch, i.e., the 2010 Labor Day weekend thriller The Debt, which posted $9.9M over the three days (its six-day opening was $14.7M), and 2005 Oscar winner The Constant Gardener ($8.5M 3-day in a $12.6M six-day debut).
Also holding previews is A24’s Adam Wingard-directed genre title Onslaught which brought in $275K. Booked at 1,900 theaters this weekend, the R-rated movie starring Adria Arjona, Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens and Drew Starkey is expected to do between $5M-$7M; the pic was made for around $15M before P&A.
RELATED: The 30 Highest-Grossing Animated Films Of All Time At The Global Box Office
Onslaught‘s blurb: When a rogue squad of genetically engineered super soldiers break loose in the desert, a badass Army sniper must unleash hell to protect her young daughter. Critics are 57% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The week’s top films:
1. Spider-Man: Brand New Day (Sony) 3,678 theaters, Wk $30.4M (-43%), Total cume $899.7M/Wk 5
2. Coyote vs. Acme (Ketchup) 3,575 theaters, Wk $22.4M/Wk 1
3. The Odyssey (Uni) 2,617 theaters, Wk $22.2M (-26%), Total $571.7M/Wk 7
4. Insidious: Out of the Further (Sony) 3,303 theaters, Wk $14M (-58%), Total $47.5M/Wk 2
5. The Dog Stars (20th) 3,330 theaters, Wk $10.3M/Wk 1
6. Buddy (RSA/Saban) 1,258 theaters, Wk $8.56M/Wk 1