Hollywood’s summer renaissance continues in spectacular fashion with Spider-Man: Brand New Day delivering the biggest domestic opening weekend in movie history. The film earned $360.1 million in North America and roughly $932 million worldwide, even without access to IMAX screens because of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

While Brand New Day became a blockbuster, Spider-Man became bigger than Marvel, and plenty of factors contributed to Brand New Day’s extraordinary opening.

Strong audience scores and enthusiastic word of mouth turned Thursday previews into one of the biggest preview nights in movie history. Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal entered the release with exceptional visibility after starring in Christopher Nolan’s latest blockbuster. The overlap effectively turned one of the summer’s biggest movies, The Odyssey, into an unexpected promotion for another.

Marvel broadened the film’s appeal by bringing familiar Marvel Cinematic Universe characters into Spider-Man’s story. The film also advances Marvel Studios’ long-term integration of the X-Men into the MCU. Sony positioned the movie as the summer’s final theatrical event before many families return to school and regular routines.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day felt like the kind of theatrical event that generates palpable buzz inside packed theaters, and Hollywood has spent decades trying to build entertainment properties that survive changing actors, changing audience tastes, and changing technology.

Most eventually lose momentum. Spider-Man has done the opposite.

Twenty-three years after the first live-action blockbuster, the franchise grows stronger as it reinvents itself. The numbers suggest audiences are buying tickets for Spider-Man first and the Marvel brand second.

Spider-Man Thrives From Reinvention

Movie franchises often depend on continuity, but Spider-Man benefited from reinvention. The Tobey Maguire trilogy introduced millions of........

© Forbes