Australian and New Zealand cinema chain Hoyts has confirmed it’s just had its best weekend of 2026, thanks to high demand and fervour for Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
Within Australia, the film grossed $30.4 million in its debut weekend, marking the biggest opening weekend of 2026, and the biggest opening weekend for any film since 2019 for Hoyts.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day – quick links
Strong results at the Australian box office
Brand New Day is now the highest-debuting Spider-Man film of all time, including the animated Spider-Verse movies, and, per Hoyts, it’s also now the second-biggest opening weekend of all time in Australia, only behind fellow Marvel film Avengers: Endgame.
On its opening day, Brand New Day earned $6.3 million, reportedly the biggest Thursday opening since Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021.
Over 1.8 million people attended Hoyts cinemas to see Spider-Man: Brand New Day during its opening weekend (from Thursday 30 July to Sunday 2 August), with folks flocking to see it in all formats, including the pricier ScreenX (270-degree panoramic), Apex and Lux sessions.
‘It’s remarkable to see so many movie fans flock to cinemas to experience Marvel’s latest blockbuster,’ said Hoyts Group President and CEO Damian Keogh.
He also claimed the ScreenX format sessions have generated ‘exceptional interest’ across the Hoyts network, with ‘strong admissions’ to this panoramic format as audiences reportedly look for ‘an experience’ in cinemas that goes beyond the traditional.
With Spider-Man: Brand New Day being the first Hollywood film to be shot for the ScreenX format, it’s likely novelty and curiosity which has driven this uptake – although it’s worth noting the film lends itself well to more immersive, big-screen viewing.
Brand New Day is a new chapter for a fan-favourite hero
Beyond the spectacular visuals, which are worth seeing on as big a screen as possible, the popularity of Spider-Man: Brand New Day can be explained in simpler terms.
It’s a film of great ambition that focuses on spectacle and substance.
Tom Holland again plays the affable, friendly hero Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man – this time brought low by a magical spell that separates him from his closest friends, who’ve lost their memories of their connection to Spider-Man. Thinking that means he must travel alone, Parker burns himself out in isolation, leading to a physical transformation that threatens his heroic goals.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day, like Thunderbolts before it, goes for a street-level approach to heroism. It’s a more grounded take compared to its direct predecessor, with a focus on Parker’s vulnerability, his stress, and the dangers of self-isolation.
It’s a wholly relatable film in that fashion, and one that depicts its core, emotional themes very well in Parker’s journey, and that of its key ‘villain’.
Brand New Day has rightfully achieved critical acclaim for its performances, its action, and its narrative, with so many disparate parts given time to breathe and evolve through a winding, cinematic adventure.
It may be this acclaim that’s driven some of the interest in the film, but there are plenty of other factors, too. Spider-Man remains one of Marvel’s most-popular heroes for his relatability and relevancy. Pretty much everybody has a connection to Spider-Man, whether forged in childhood or into adulthood.
Tom Holland himself has also gathered steam as a leading man in recent years, thanks to head-turning performances in The Odyssey, the Spider-Man films, Uncharted, The Crowded Room and, even earlier, in The Impossible and the Billy Elliot stage musical.
There’s also the matter that it’s been five long years since the last Spider-Man film, which was an equally excellent tale of persistence in the face of impossible odds, and that a desire for good, grounded superhero films with a touch of escapism still persists.
Whatever the core reason that motivates individual moviegoers, it’s clear there’s love for this particular film and how it tells its story of superheroism. At this stage, it feels more than likely it’ll become one of top-grossing films of the 2020s.
