After smashing box office records for 2021 during its opening weekend, Spider-Man: No Way Home is now set to become the highest-grossing film of the year.
Per Variety, the film is set to pass the $1 billion worldwide gross mark on Christmas Day. That will make it the highest-grossing film of the year, beating out Chinese war film The Battle at Lake Changjin, which grossed over $905 million at the box office. No Way Home will become the first theatrical release since the start of the pandemic to hit $1 billion, and it’s done it without releasing in China.
On Thursday, No Way Home brought in $29.3 million domestically to a seven-day gross of $385.8 million. That’s the third highest seven-day gross of all-time at the U.S. box office, and the second highest to do so in December. At the international box office, Spidey brought home $32.2 million on Thursday toward an overseas total of $490.2 million. The film has only been in theaters for 11 days come Christmas Day, and that means it’s the second fastest $1 billion gross since Avengers: Endgame.
The news of the MCU film’s massive success comes as the team behind the film is planning to push for a Best Picture nomination at the Oscars. Only one superhero comic book adaptation has been nominated for the award in the past, and that’s 2018’s Black Panther. Per the Hollywood Reporter, MCU head Kevin Feige said he thinks the film deserves recognition at award shows, as well as the box office.
“It’s a good thing when people are in a theater and they stand up and cheer. It’s a good thing when people are wiping tears because they’re thinking back on their last 20 years of moviegoing and what it has meant to them," he said. "That, to me, is a very good thing — the sort of thing the Academy was founded, back in the day, to recognize."
