For the last two years we’ve heard story after story about the pandemic’s impact on the theatrical business. And for sure, exhibitors have been on the verge of collapse with only the hope that blockbusters could sustain them. Entering into 2021, it was clear Marvel would need to shoulder a lot of that load. And so far we’ve seen them do that, beginning with Black Widow and continuing through Shang-Chi and Eternals. And now they appear to have saved their biggest hit of the year for last.
According to Fandango, next month’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is shaping up to be gigantic. A tweet says the film is already the biggest for presale ticket orders for all of 2021, beating out Black Widow. Furthermore, those presale orders are the most since Avengers: Endgame in 2019. How’d that movie do? Oh yeah, pretty damned massive.
JUST IN: #SpiderManNoWayHome had the biggest 1st day of pre-sales at @Fandango since #AvengersEndgame. It only took TWO HOURS for it to break the 2021 record, previously held by #BlackWidow. Other films it topped include AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR & both LAST JEDI & RISE OF SKYWALKER pic.twitter.com/xbjZptHT59
— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) November 30, 2021
There are a lot of reasons for this, beginning with moviegoers’ comfort returning to theaters. I would caution this one considering recent news about a new coronavirus variant, but for now people want to go out and see movies again. And of course, there’s a ton of speculation about the film’s importance to the MCU, with Doctor Strange playing a key role in a story heavily focused on the Multiverse. Plus, who doesn’t want to be there when/if Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield show up to fight alongside Tom Holland?
Spider-Man: No Way Home opens December 17th.
