New York
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” continued its blistering pace in theaters, collecting USD 144.5 million domestically over its second weekend, according to studio estimates Sunday, while Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey” set a new high for the director.
The Sony-Marvel release has accrued USD 1.67 billion worldwide in just 10 days of release, putting it on a trajectory to be among the biggest blockbusters ever. Domestically, no movie has wracked up a higher total faster. In U S and Canadian cinemas, “Brand New Day” has grossed USD 655.1 million thus far. Overseas, it's already surpassed USD 1 billion.
It took only seven days for “Brand New Day” to become the highest grossing movie of the year, easily displacing “Toy Story 5” (USD 1.07 billion worldwide). No Sony film has ever cleared USD 100 million in its second weekend before. It came close to toppling the best sophomore frame on record: “The Force Awakens,” with USD 149.2 million in 2015.
Christopher Nolan's “The Odyssey” also crossed USD 1 billion. In its fourth weekend, the Universal Pictures release added USD 31.5 million domestically to bring its global total to $1.1 billion.
Nolan's Homeric epic is the director's first movie to reach that threshold since 2012's “The Dark Knight Rises.” It now ranks as Nolan's biggest box-office hit ever, not accounting for inflation, eclipsing both “The Dark Knight Rises” (USD 1.08 billion) and 2009's “The Dark Knight” (USD 1 billion). Nolan's “Oppenheimer” (USD 975 million) ended just shy of the milestone.
A big part of the success, of course, has been on IMAX. With USD 147.3 million domestically on the company's large-format screens, “The Odyssey” now ranks as IMAX's highest grossing domestic release of all time.
“The Odyssey” still has one major market left. It opens in China on Friday.
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” and “The Odyssey” have helped drive Hollywood to its best box-office year since the pandemic. Ticket sales are running 18.5% ahead of last year, according to Rentrak. There have already been five USD 1 billion movies — more than any year since 2019. The other two were “Michael” and “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.”
Rentrak forecasts that the overall summer theatrical revenue will reach USD 4 billion on Monday. That seasonal mark has long been a sign of thriving business for Hollywood. Since the pandemic, the only summer to surpass USD 4 billion was 2023, when “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” drove ticket sales.
According to Rentrak, summer revenue is just USD 14.8 million shy of USD 4 billion through Sunday.
A pair of comedies tried to provide some counterprogramming to the blockbusters but made little impact.
“One Night Only,” a Will Gluck-directed romantic comedy where premarital sex is outlawed except for one night a year, opened with USD 5.7 million. The Universal release, starring Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner, cost about USD 25 million to make. Reviews weren't good (46% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) but audience scores (a “B+” CinemaScore) were better.
Coming in fourth was Fox Searchlight's “Super Troopers 3,” the third in the long-running comedy series from the comedy troupe Broken Lizard. It debuted with USD 4 million.
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Two new limited releases packed theaters. A24's “Tony,” starring Dominic Sessa as a young Anthony Bourdain, grossed USD 348,955, good for one of the best screen-average openings of the year: USD 58,159 per theater. Mubi's “Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma,” from “I Saw the TV Glow” filmmaker Jane Schoenbrun, debuted with a per-location average of USD 50,300 across five screens.