Theatergoers are tired of the pandemic. They showed up in droves to watch Spider-Man: Now Way Home and they did it by shattering box office records.

The supposedly-final Tom Holland’s third standalone film broke all pandemic records to even return the box office to its normalcy before 2000. In the amazing debut weekend, the film garnered $253 million domestically in North America and an additional $334.2 million overseas. With this intake, Spider-Man: No Way Home took in a total of $587.2 million worldwide that only trailed the two Avengers releases of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.

Despite the rapid spread of the Omicron variant and the government’s warning to avoid large crowds, industry analysts only projected $130 to $150 million domestically. However, the film blew that prediction out of the water by taking in $121 million on the first day alone. The overall haul broke all box office records since the pandemic began.

The film was buoyed by positive reviews from critics with a 94 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and even a very impressive A+ CinemaScore from audiences. It opened in 4,336 theaters, which earned an average $58,348 per-screen average. Of the overseas markets, it opened in the United Kingdom market with the biggest gain of $41.4 million. In light of the good news, this film has yet to open in China at this time.

So, yes, Christmas came early for Spidey.

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Despite Spider-Man’s success, there are other films in the theaters.

Holding on to the second position, Disney’s animated Encanto earned another $6.5 million domestically, a drop of 34.6 percent from the previous weekend. Its total put it at $81.5 million.

The previous weekend’s top box earner West Side Story continued to disappoint by failing to third place with $3.4 million, a drop of 67.7 percent. The musical has had lackluster theater ticket sales the past week and the blame was on multiple factors, including the pandemic. With Spidey’s success, the pandemic is no longer an excuse.

In fourth place, Ghostbusters: Afterlife fell one spot by earning $3.4 million, a 52.1 percent decrease. The family adventure film suffered in the hands of a comic book movie debut and amazingly held on in the top five.

Finally, rounding in the last spot is Guillermo del Toro’s period thriller Nightmare Alley, which opened at $2.958 million. The crime story stars Bradley Cooper and Cate Blanchett.

Spider-Man’s honeymoon may be short-lived. A slew of films will open right before Christmas that includes the fourth installment with The Matrix Resurrections, the prequel The King’s Man, and an animated sequel Sing 2. Not to mention, an early buzz on an indie film Licorice Pizza from Paul Thomas Anderson and the Kurt Warner biopic American Underdog compete for the other crowds.

Source: Box Office Mojo