Spider-Man beats Pathaan and Dhurandhar at the Indian box office as global opening races towards $1 billion

Dubai: Spider-Man: Brand New Day opened in UAE and Indian cinemas on 30 July, a day ahead of its American release. Three days later it holds the record for the biggest Hollywood opening in Indian history, and it is running ahead of the three-day totals posted by some of Bollywood's biggest names.

Globally, the picture is even more lopsided. The film is on course for one of the largest opening weekends ever recorded, with close to a billion dollars in the bank before its first Sunday is out.

What the India numbers look like

The film took a net ₹60.60 crore on its first day in India. That figure pushed past the previous record holders, Avengers: Endgame on a net ₹53.60 crore in 2019 and Avatar: The Way of Water on ₹40.30 crore in 2022, and also cleared the opening days of Pathaan and Dhurandhar, though it sits behind Animal and KGF 2.

Friday softened slightly to ₹49.35 crore. Then Saturday did something unusual for a Hollywood release in India. Day three brought in ₹70.25 crore, a jump of more than 42 per cent on the previous day, taking the three-day India net to ₹180.20 crore. That is roughly Dh75 million, and it is the sort of second-weekend-style growth curve you normally see from a Hindi blockbuster with heavy family bookings. 

Shah Rukh Khan's Pathaan sat at about ₹161 crore net after three days. Salman Khan's strongest three-day run, from Tiger 3, was around ₹144 crore. Dhurandhar was further back at roughly ₹102 crore.

The audience behind these figures

The language breakdown is worth a look, because it explains the size of the number. On Saturday the English version accounted for ₹38.35 crore, the Hindi dub for ₹21.75 crore, Tamil for ₹3.75 crore and Telugu for ₹2.75 crore. Occupancy in English 3D shows ran at just under 70 per cent. Mumbai led on volume with 775 screenings, while Bengaluru posted the higher occupancy rate at 70.3 per cent across 653 shows.

By day four the film was playing across 4,771 shows nationwide. 

The American record, and the global one

North America has been rewriting its own record book. The film took $72 million from paid previews alone, beating the $60 million Endgame managed in 2019. Friday brought $168 million domestically from 4,487 screens, previews included, the biggest single opening day the market has seen.

Sony is guiding towards $325 million for the three-day weekend, which would land it second all time behind Endgame's $357.1 million, though some rival trackers think it edges ahead. 

Worldwide, the film opened mid-week in several territories. Projections put the global opening weekend at around $925 million, made up of the $325 million domestic figure and roughly $600 million from international markets. Endgame's $1.22 billion global launch record looks safe for now, but analysts expect this to become the eighth film ever to cross $2 billion. China, where the film opened on Wednesday, has already contributed over $71 million.

Where you can watch it here

Empire Entertainment handles Sony's theatrical distribution across the Middle East and put the film into UAE cinemas on 30 July. It is playing at VOX, Novo and Reel across Dubai and Abu Dhabi, in standard, IMAX, 3D and premium formats, with late-night screenings past 1am at several sites over the weekend.

The film

Destin Daniel Cretton, who made Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, takes over directing duties from Jon Watts. Tom Holland returns as Peter Parker alongside Zendaya as MJ and Jacob Batalon as Ned, with Sadie Sink, Mark Ruffalo, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman and Liza Colón-Zayas joining.

The story picks up four years after No Way Home. Peter is living alone in a New York that has no memory of him, working full-time as Spider-Man, and the strain of it triggers a physical change he cannot control. A new and largely unseen threat arrives at the same time.

Reviews have been strong at 90 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, with a 98 per cent audience score and an A on CinemaScore.