'Spider-Man: No Way Home' snags eye-popping $50M in previews

So, after months of speculation and leaks, it’s true— “Spider-Man: No Way Home” saw the return of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield as different Peter Parkers to help Tom Holland’s new Peter Parker fight bad guys. And the film is exceeding even Sony’s wildest expectations, smashing box office records and earning rave reviews from critics and fans alike.

NEW YORK -- Hollywood closed out 2021 with more fireworks at the box office for “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” which topped all films for the third straight week and already charts among the highest grossing films ever.

SATURDAY AM UPDATE: The first weekend of 2022 for all movies is looking at $100.6M, an amount that’s 700% ahead of New Year’s weekend 2021 when most theaters where closed due to Covid, but behind 29% two years ago in 2020 when Covid didn’t seem to be a threat stateside.

**Spoilers for ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ are incoming…** **You’ve been warned.** Say what you will about “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” the film definitely doesn’t underdeliver on the number of twists, turns, and surprising cameos. But believe it or not, if the studio went with the early drafts of the script, there could have been a lot more familiar faces showing up in the record-breaking sequel.

Welcome back from your slumber and food coma. As you start to raise from your holiday fog (hope you had a merry one), you’ll start to receive bits of information that penetrate your haze.

It’s official— “Spider-Man: No Way Home” has done what no other pandemic-era film has done so far, earning more than $1 billion worldwide. And the film did it in only 12 days.

Three big event movies –Illumination/Universal’s Sing 2, Warner Bros’ Matrix Resurrections, and 20th Century Studios’ The King’s Man– were no match for Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home which continued to dominate Wednesday with an amazing $27.8M. The Jon Watts-directed MCU title has a running U.S/Canadian total of $356.5M over six days, which is the third best for that range after Avengers: Endgame ($452.3M) and Star Wars: Force Awakens ($363.4M).

Refresh for updates: Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way grossed $31.4M on Tuesday, -15% from Monday’s $37.1M. All in, Spider-Man: No Way Home counts $328.7M stateside through five days, the No. 2 five-day gross of all-time after Avengers: Endgame ($427M) and the highest December 5-day gross of all-time beating Star Wars: Force Awakens ($325.4M).

Spider-Man: No Way Home” press tour.But producer Amy Pascal recently revealed that she attempted to steer Holland and Zendaya away from any future dating shortly after they were cast.“I took Tom and Zendaya aside, separately, when we first cast them and gave them a lecture,” Pascal in an interview with the New York Times published Friday. “Don’t go there — just don’t.

Coming into the weekend, everyone knew “Spider-Man: No Way Home” would break pandemic-era box office records. Previously, the biggest debut was with “Venom: Let There Be Carnage,” which earned $90 million over its first three days back in October.

Kevin Feige is looking ahead to the future.

Spider-Man: No Way Home is “actively” in the works, Marvel boss Kevin Fiege has confirmed.Fiege made the comments alongside studio partners Sony, whose boss Amy Pascal also spoke about efforts being made to get a follow-up off the ground.“Amy and I and Disney and Sony are talking about – yes, we’re actively beginning to develop where the story heads next, which I only say outright because I don’t want fans to go through any separation trauma like what happened after Far From Home,” Feige told

Selome Hailu editorLongtime “Spider-Man” series producer Amy Pascal and Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige have an offbeat filmmaking partnership, as they demonstrated in a new interview.In a conversation with the New York Times’ Brooks Barnes about “Spider-Man: No Way Home” and the future of the franchise, the pair addressed Pascal’s previous comments that Tom Holland would star in another “Spider-Man” trilogy.

With Spider-Man: No Way Home now out in theaters, Disney and Sony are “actively beginning to develop” where the web-slinger’s story goes next, says Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige.

Finally, after what seems like a decade of speculation, leaks, rumors, and general social media debate, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is in theaters (you can read our review).