Just when you thought Spider-Man: No Way Home was getting pushed out of the box office picture after Scream knocked the web-slinging extravaganza from the top spot after four straight weeks, it’s only gone and returned to the summit in double-quick time.
Despite a solid debut, Scream fell further than expected this weekend, whereas Tom Holland’s Peter Parker over-performed yet again. That’s become something of a running theme, and after another impressive overseas haul, No Way Home is officially the sixth highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema.
The early numbers have the 27th installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sitting on a mammoth $1.69 billion by the end of play today, which takes it past the $1.66 billion of Jon Favreau’s The Lion King, and the $1.67 billion of Jurassic World, to snatch sixth position on the all-time charts.
What makes that all the more incredible is that No Way Home arrived in the midst of a global health crisis, and has yet to see the inside of a Chinese theater, a market that’s proven hugely lucrative for the friendly neighborhood superhero in the past.
That’s realistically as high as No Way Home is going to fly, though, with Avengers: Infinity War sitting fifth on $2.048 billion, a number that’s almost definitely a step too far for Spidey.