Following the celebrity fanfare of Monday night’s LA red carpet premiere of Spider-Man: No Way Home, we’re now learning that anticipation is so high from the general public for the movie, which will hit theaters Friday, that estimates suggest the movie is will become the biggest pandemic-era domestic box office opening weekend.
While conservative estimates suggest the film will top $100 million over its three-day debut, co-producer Sony is betting the tally will be even higher, at $130 million, CNBC reports.
With $100 million being the low-ball estimate, even that still beats out the previous pandemic-era high water mark of $90 million with Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage in October.
Indeed, it was the opinion of Jeff Bock, senior analyst at Exhibitor Relations, that the film isn’t just the most anticipated movie of the holiday season, but the most anticipated movie of the year and expected “to have legs for months,” the report said.
With early reviews of the film as glowing as they are and a number of fan-favorite plot points at play in the movie, it’s not entirely surprising that the movie’s release is so massive.
An even more generous estimate predicts the film will actually top $200 million as well, despite the pandemic box office being somewhat unpredictable coinciding with the veritable ups and downs coronavirus surges and declines.
Should the film net more than $151 million, it will beat the previous box office Spider-Man opening weekend record set by 2007’s Spider-Man 3 with Tobey Maguire, according to Box Office Mojo.
Spider-Man: No Way Home hits theaters Dec. 17.