Movie Tuesday: ‘Spider-Man' Caps Record-Breaking Summer With Another Win

We've just closed the books on the summer box-office season—a season that, according to Hollywood's curious calendar, runs from May 1 through Labor Day. And my, what a season it was. Movies raked in a record-breaking $4.76 billion over the 130-day summer frame, nosing past the old record of $4.755 million set in 2013. Granted, the mark comes with a couple of asterisks. The first qualifier? Labor Day landed exceptionally late this year: In 2013, the summer season was seven days shorter. The other one? Ticket prices. Actual ticket sales are still significantly down from their pre-COVID levels. But those dwindling sales have been offset by higher prices—especially the premiums theaters charge for, say, all those 70mm screenings that The Odyssey has been enjoying. But let's not be too churlish. This still marks a big, big year in moviedom—and a couple of the box office's biggest players are still padding their own bottom lines. First up, of course, is Spider-Man: Brand New Day. While the hero himself may be just your friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, the movie is taking on the tinge of a terrifying global overlord. It won the weekend's domestic box-office title for the sixth straight time, snatching up nearly $23.5 million over the extended four-day weekend en route to victory. That pushes Spidey's total domestic gross to $923.3 million, moving it into striking distance of the No. 1 movie of all time. (That would be Star Wars: Episode VII—The Force Awakens, which earned $936.7 million in 2015.) Add the movie's international earnings, and Brand New Day's global gross now stands at $2.4 billion. Tony Stark would be so proud. The Odyssey continues its own epic run, sailing to another $17.3 million to push its domestic haul to $589.1 million. With the movie's significant overseas tally, you're looking at $1.6 billion worldwide. That's a lot of gold in Odysseus' cargo hold. No wonder it took him so long to get home. Coyote vs. Acme continues its own nifty little run. The film may have slipped from second to third place this week, but it still earned $15.9 million. Coyote vs. Acme has now earned $38.4 million in North America and $45.7 million worldwide—plenty of cash to buy a few more Acme-brand dehydrated boulders. The new release By Any Means landed in fourth place with $9.3 million. Meanwhile, a re-release of Pixar's Cars squeezed into fifth place with $7.8 million. Cars earned a substantial $251.9 million back during its original domestic run in 2006, so Lightning McQueen and company now have $259.7 million stuffed in their collective trunks. Looking down the list, it appears that Fall 2: Deadpoint was appropriately named. It earned just $2.9 million—slightly better than the original Fall mustered in 2022, if you can believe it—to land hard in 11th place. Deadpoint feels like it's dead on arrival. In lucky 13th place, we find A24's slasher horror action flick Onslaught. It earned $2.3 million.