Spider-Man: Brand New Day breaks all-time preview record with $72M haul

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has set a new all-time box office preview record, pulling in $72 million before its official wide release on July 31 — beating the previous mark of $60 million held by Avengers: Endgame. It's the biggest pre-opening haul in cinema history, and it puts the film in serious contention for one of the largest opening weekends ever recorded.

The numbers

Analyst tracking firms currently project a domestic opening weekend between $260 million and $280 million, with some bullish estimates pushing past $300 million, per Variety. Sony Pictures, however, is keeping its own forecast conservative at $190–195 million — a gap that reflects standard studio risk-hedging rather than any lack of confidence. For context, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey — currently the biggest opening weekend of his career — launched to $264 million worldwide.

The marketing campaign behind the film is itself a record. Sony spent a total of $309 million in worldwide media value across 165 brand partnerships — surpassing the previous Hollywood marketing benchmark of $288 million set by Spider-Man: Far From Home, according to Deadline. Partners included BMW, Samsung, and Little Caesars, with a combined social media reach of 2.86 billion — roughly 3.2 times the superhero film average.

The film

Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker, with Zendaya back as MJ. The plot picks up with all of New York — including MJ — having forgotten that Peter Parker is Spider-Man, forcing him to resume crime-fighting anonymously. Familiar characters return alongside new threats: the Punisher, Bruce Banner, and Scorpion all appear, while the Hand serves as the primary villain faction. The film is directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.

Early momentum

The European rollout started Wednesday, with Italy recording $4.6 million on opening day — the second-biggest single-day result in Italian box office history, behind only Endgame's $5.8 million. The UK, Spain, France, and Germany all followed with Wednesday evening screenings. The US wide release opened Friday. Whether the record preview number converts into a record opening weekend will be clear by Sunday night — but the early signs are hard to argue with.