Spider-Man: No Way Home ties with Force Awakens as third fastest million to reach $1bn in box office

Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the first film since Covid’s emergence to cross the $1 billion mark at the box office, meeting the milestone in a remarkable 12 days.

The film is tied with Star Wars: The Force Awakens for how quickly it crossed the milestone and is outdone only by other movies in its cinematic universe: Infinity War and Endgame. It is the only film to cross the billion-dollar mark globally in the last two years; a feat considered more impressive due to the rapid spread of the omicron variant.

The pandemic saw a fall in the output of art from both the local and global industries, to the point where the largest theatre company in the US, AMC Theatres, was facing bankruptcy during the course of the various lockdowns. Now, in spite of a new variant of the overstaying coronavirus looming on the horizon of various countries, cinemas appear to be showing a reemergence.

Spider-Man’s domination at the box office occurred while competing with other anticipated additions to beloved franchises, including The Matrix Resurrections, Sing 2 and The King’s Man.

Speaking on the film during an interview prior to its release, Spider-Man costar Zendaya said: “I cried throughout the whole movie. And the first thing I said when we finished was, ‘This is awfully sad.’”

“It’s brutal,” Tom Holland said at the time. “It’s tough. It’s bittersweet.” To which, Zendaya maintained, “Is it though? Because it’s very much just bitter”.