Spider-Man: Brand New Day stays No. 1 for sixth straight weekend as Hollywood scores biggest summer since 2019

At this point, someone should just hand Spider-Man the keys to the multiplex. Brand New Day has now spent six consecutive weekends perched at No. 1, a feat so rare this decade that only Avatar: The Way of Water back in 2022 has managed the same trick. The web-slinger pulled in another $18 million this past weekend, with Sony eyeing $23.3 million once the full four-day Labor Day tally comes in. Lifetime worldwide haul: A staggering $2.4 billion, according to the Associated Press.

Holding steady at No. 2, like the world's most patient understudy, is Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. The film added $13 million domestically and has now sailed past $1.63 billion globally, over a billion of that from overseas audiences alone, making it the first film since 2009's original Avatar to clear that particular international bar.

Together, these two heavyweights have basically carried Hollywood on their backs to its best summer since before the pandemic scrambled everything. Domestic box office through August 31 hit $4.6 billion, up a healthy 26.1% from last year and inching toward 2013's all-time summer record, per Rentrak.

Factor in Labor Day weekend, and the season is projected to close at $4.759 billion, technically edging past 2013's $4.758 billion, though this year's "summer" stretched a generous 130 days versus 2013's tighter 123. As noted by Associated Press, adjust for inflation and pricier tickets, and the victory gets a bit less triumphant actual admissions are still trailing pre-pandemic norms, but after years of pandemic chaos, labor strikes, and streaming, this counts as a genuine comeback story.

Labor Day weekend is typically a quiet stretch for theaters, and this year was no exception, with neither new wide release making a significant impact. Paramount's civil-rights thriller By Any Means, starring Mark Wahlberg and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, opened modestly at $7.4 million, with a four-day projection of $9.2 million and a "B+" CinemaScore. A24's Onslaught fared less well, grossing just $1.9 million despite a release on 1,918 screens; a "C" CinemaScore and mixed reviews (57% on Rotten Tomatoes) point to a muted audience response to the film's premise, in which star Adria Arjona's former Army sniper defends her home against escaped experimental super soldiers.

According to AP, the stronger performers of the weekend came from smaller films. Coyote vs. Acme, which Warner Bros. had shelved before Ketchup Entertainment acquired it for roughly $50 million, continues to outperform expectations. The film dipped a modest 29% in its second weekend, grossing $11.3 million and bringing its two-week domestic total to $33.8 million. Buddy, a $3 million dark comedy about children trapped inside a surreal 1990s children's television series, also held up well, growing its audience by 5% in its second weekend to $5.7 million and reaching a $14.3 million cumulative total.

With inputs from Associated Press