‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’ power biggest box office weekend in history

Pop Culture News‘Spider-Man’ and ‘The Odyssey’ power biggest box office weekend in historyThe two blockbusters together pulled in more than $400 million at the domestic box office this weekend.Listen to this article with a free profile00:0000:00Zendaya and Tom Holland in "Spider-Man: Brand New Day"; Matt Damon and Zendaya in "The Odyssey."Sony Pictures; Universal PicturesShareAdd NBC News to GoogleAug. 2, 2026, 2:54 PM EDTBy Angela Yang“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” swung to the top of the box office charts with a whopping $355 million debut — the second-biggest opening weekend in domestic box office history.Combined with the ongoing draw of Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” which pulled in another $51 million this weekend, the two blockbusters delivered a one-two punch that made this the biggest box office weekend ever.“It reminds me a bit of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, where you had two movies creating this fervor around moviegoing, and that plays very well,” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at box office analytics company Rentrak.Together, the two films’ $406 million weekend outpaced the box office record set by “Avengers: Endgame,” which opened to $357 million in 2019.The hype for Sony and Marvel’s “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” is a worldwide phenomenon: The film amassed $927 million globally in its opening weekend alone.It’s the fourth installment in the Tom Holland-led iteration of the franchise within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The star-studded movie racked up a 90% critic approval score and a 98% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.Anticipation for Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” meanwhile, ran so high that many fans ordered their tickets more than a year in advance, while others scrambled for resold tickets or settled for 2 a.m. showings just to get in.Dergarabedian said the numbers signal that the tides have once again turned for movie theaters, which in recent years struggled to bounce back from lower post-pandemic attendance,...