Top-grossing Sony Pictures film of all time is Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to break records at the box office as it becomes the top-grossing film from Sony Pictures of all time.

After a rough period for the film and movie theater industry in light of film release delays and COVID-19 closures, big financial box office numbers returned massively with the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the number one movie of 2021 and has now become “Sony Pictures’ top-grossing movie of all time.”

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and other Spider-Man films such as Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, and Spider-Man: Far from Home were the other films to be among the highest-grossing Sony films, making $336 million to $404 million.

Spider-Man: No Way Home keeps shattering records, bringing in, “$516.4 million domestically and $644.9 million internationally for a worldwide total of $1.16 billion,” by the end of 2021. This number will continue to grow as it is currently still playing in theaters.

Spider-Man: No Way Home has become only the 3rd Sony picture to pass the billion-dollar mark with $1,16 billion, beating out Spider-Man: Far From Home which made $1.13 billion, and the James Bond film, Skyfall, which made $1.10 billion.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is still doing incredibly well at the box office, coming in at the top of the weekend box office charts making $52.3 million for the weekend of December 31st through January 2nd in its third week.

As Spider-Man: No Way Home is a comic book film filled with many surprises as it follows the web-slinging hero as he takes on the Multiverse, the film keeps attracting audiences during a time when the industry needed it.

The film has been breaking numerous records since it came out, including having the “second-highest opening ever at the domestic box office” by earning $260 million, taking the second place slot from Avengers: Infinity War, which made $257.698 million and being shy of Avengers: Endgame‘s top spot, which made $357 million.

To get an idea of opening weekend box office totals, in addition to the ones mentioned, films such as Jurassic World, the Star Wars sequels The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi, and Black Panther are the only films to have made over $200 million their opening weekends alone.

Films that made over $100 million make up numbers 9 through 61 on BoxOfficeMojo’s list of data for biggest weekend box office openings. This includes films from such franchises as The Hunger Games, Wonder Woman, Shrek, Toy Story, Transformers, Deadpool, Frozen, The Twilight Saga, The Dark Knight, The Incredibles, and films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Before 2020, the film industry shifted to it being the norm for the most financially successful movies making $90 million and above on its opening weekend, as the Top 10 lists of the highest moneymakers at the weekend domestic box office show.

In 2020, when the pandemic hit, the biggest opening weekends went to Bad Boys for Life, Sonic the Hedgehog, and Birds of Prey, making $62 million, $58 million, and $33 million respectively. There were concerns as to how movies and the film industry would bounce back financially as theaters were permanently shutting down and in light of COVID-related delays and further closures.

However, as theaters began to open up again in 2021, while there’s still growth to be made, Spider-Man: No Way Home made a positive impact in rebuilding the theater industry.

As The Hollywood Reporter says, “revenue at the North American box office jumped 101 percent over 2020” due in part to “superhero, action, and horror dominating the top reaches of the yearly chart.”

By the end of 2021, comic book films such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Black Widow, and Venom: Let There Be Carnage all earned $75.3 million, $80.3 million, and $90 million respectively during their opening weekends at the box office, with Black Widow earning its money while being simultaneously released at home on Disney Plus streaming, as well. Those three films have earned from $183.6 million to $224.5 million in total.

Beyond comic book films, franchise releases such as F9: The Fast Saga from the Fast and Furious series and No Time to Die from the James Bond franchise brought in $70 million and $55.2 million for their opening weekends and, as of the end of 2021, grossed $173 million and $160.7 million, respectively.  Films such as Free Guy and A Quiet Place II brought in $160 million and $121.6 million respectively, adding to totals that far exceeded the number brought in during the pandemic era of 2020.

This, “still lagged far behind pre-pandemic levels.” As a result, the “box office ended [the] year 60% behind 2019 with $4.5B domestically,” but there is still growth being made.

While this figure seems daunting, the money that came from Spider-Man: No Way Home looks to help bring numbers back to pre-pandemic levels. Keeping these numbers from how movies did before the pandemic in 2019, at the height of it in 2020, and during the recovery era of 2021 in mind, Spider-Man: No Way Home being the top-grossing Sony Pictures film of all time paints a positive picture for the future of the theater industry.

It’s not everyday records are shattered the way Spider-Man: No Way Home has. Here’s to this being the beginning of a return to growth in revenue for theaters, the reopening of closed cinemas to meet heightened demand, and (hopefully) more opportunities for more stories to be told to fulfill the thirst for motion pictures on the big screen.