Spiderman's NWH: The Cinema World's New Hope

Photo by Judeus Samson on Unsplash

If there has been anything that has been the talk of the town for these past few months, Spider-man: No Way Home is a sure answer. Produced by Sony, this latest Marvel Cinematic Universe film has reportedly brought in $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales without a release in China. This makes the movie the first to hit such a figure since the beginning of COVID. Its opening week saw $253 million in estimated ticket sales, placing third behind Marvel's "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avengers: Infinity War." 

‘No Way Home’ Swinging Ticket Sales to greater heights

Despite health concerns over the pandemic, No Way Home records prove the franchise's global reach and relevance. Cineworld, the second-largest cinema operator, based in England, reportedly saw a growth in sales recovering to nearly 90% of their pre-pandemic operations. The company also attributes less cinema foot traffic to the rise of on-demand platform streaming sites such as Netflix and Hulu. Still, Cineworld has seen a gradual recovery since April last year due to the release of Marvel films like Black Widow and Eternals. 

Similarly, AMC Entertainment, the world's largest cinema chain, says that the film "was the single highest number of people watching one movie on one day at AMC's U.S. theaters during all of the calendar years 2020 and 2021." The company estimates that 1.1 million people attended the premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home on Thursday, breaking AMC box office records for December film releases. In addition to increased sales, AMC's stock rose by 8.2% during the movie's opening weekend. 

The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The Franchise that Can’t be Beat 

Although the film was released during the pandemic, No Way Home established its position among its other Marvel counterparts like Endgame and Infinity War. The box office saw a similar enthusiasm back in 2019 when "Avengers: Endgame" was released, which resulted in the highest domestic and global opening of all time. Similarly, Spider-man's Sony counterpart, Venom, which released a film under its franchise this year, recorded $90.1 million over the first three days in cinemas.

Chinese Cinema Market

2021's highest-grossing films are from China. The Chinese film The Battle of Lake Changjin, released in November 2021, has garnered $904.9 million worldwide. Similarly, "Hi, Mom," which debuted in February, is No. 2 with $900.4 million in global ticket sales. 

Although the film has yet to be shown in China, No Way Home was able to hit the $1 billion mark. It joins the only four other movies to have hit the $1 billion mark without being released in China, such as Joker, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead's Man Chest, Alice in Wonderland, and The Dark Knight. As per writing, the film has yet to receive a response from the government, but it could still show in Chinese theaters around this year. Previous Spider-Man movies have done well with Chinese audiences; Far From Home brought in $199 million when released in the country two years ago.

All foreign films are subjected to deep consideration and approval by the China Film Administration and are subject to censorship. Marvel's recent release, The Eternals, was not shown in China, presumably due to past comments made by the Beijing-born director Chloe Zhao which were deemed 'offensive' by Chinese nationalists. After Zhao's Nomadland won the 2021 Oscars for best picture, censorship of key search topics and film-related words across all Chinese social media platforms was implemented. 

Despite the apparent disadvantage of the pandemic, Spider-man's No Way Home has triumphed against all the odds. Given that the movie was the first pandemic film to reach this astounding figure even without the help of China, No Way Home gives hope that cinema can go back to what it was before.