Spider-Man: Brand New Day Is Now the Highest-Grossing Movie Ever at the Domestic Box Office

Spider-Man: Brand New Day passed Star Wars: The Force Awakens on September 16 to become the highest-grossing movie at the North American box office in nominal, unadjusted dollars. It remains No. 1: The Numbers lists $954,477,000 domestically through October 4, about $17.81 million ahead of The Force Awakens’ $936,662,225. The September 16 milestone came on the film’s 47th day of release; its total has kept growing since then.

How It Got Here

Brand New Day passed Avengers: Endgame’s then-listed domestic total of $858,373,000 on August 24, moving into second place on the all-time North American chart at the time. It then became the fastest film ever to reach $900 million domestically, doing it in roughly 36 days against The Force Awakens’ own 50-day pace to the same mark in 2015. Six straight weekends at No. 1 — including Labor Day weekend against Coyote vs. Acme’s second-weekend hold — chipped the remaining gap down from around $45 million after its fifth weekend to roughly $14 million by Labor Day, and continued theatrical business over the following days closed that final stretch.

Current Status

The Brand New Day and current Endgame figures are The Numbers’ listed running totals, checked October 5. They incorporate the latest weekend estimates and can change as more grosses are reported; they are not final lifetime totals.

Which Record This Actually Is

The record is for North American box office in unadjusted dollars — not worldwide gross, inflation-adjusted gross or total tickets sold. Adjusted for inflation, The Force Awakens remains far ahead. Worldwide, The Numbers lists Brand New Day at about $2.505 billion, a separate measure from the domestic ranking.

The domestic figure is still a running theatrical total, not a final lifetime figure. That does not change the September 16 milestone reported by Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

How Close the Record Was on September 16

When Brand New Day first crossed The Force Awakens on September 16, its lead was only about $100,000. That describes the moment the record fell, not the current gap. Using The Numbers’ latest listed totals, the lead has widened to $17,814,775.

Avengers: Endgame returned to theaters on September 25 as Endgame Encore. Re-release grosses do count toward a film’s cumulative lifetime box office: Disney’s September 27 announcement estimated Encore’s opening at $26 million domestically and $86 million worldwide, lifting Endgame’s worldwide lifetime total at that point to $2.885 billion. Variety put its domestic lifetime total at about $884 million after that opening weekend.

By October 4, Disney estimated Endgame had reached $2.9255 billion worldwide, narrowly ahead of Avatar’s $2.9237 billion. That is the worldwide record in unadjusted dollars, separate from the North American chart. The Numbers now lists Endgame at $894,599,985 domestically through October 4, still below both The Force Awakens and Brand New Day. For the current worldwide comparison and new footage, see our Endgame Encore explainer.

Why the Record Matters

Brand New Day is now the highest-grossing movie in North American box office history in nominal dollars — a record The Force Awakens had held for almost eleven years. It hit $700 million domestically faster than any film in history back when this run first started drawing attention, and it was still building toward this position as recently as its fourth weekend.

The movie’s title comes from a real Spider-Man comics era. Want to read the comics behind it? See our Brand New Day comics reading guide.