Summary

• 'No Way Home' outperformed 'Avengers: Infinity War' domestically by about $136 million.
• Massive anticipation and widespread appeal helped drive 'No Way Home's box office success, as did a commitment to releasing the blockbuster in theaters.
• 'Spider-Man 4' will need a fresh approach to match or exceed the success of 'No Way Home'.

A key stat for Spider-Man: No Way Home makes its box office success even more impressive. Released in 2021, No Way Home was the culmination of Sony and Marvel Studios' initial trilogy starring the MCU's Webslinger, featuring Tom Holland's Peter Parker who gets caught in a multiversal misadventure involving both villains and heroes from different realities. As such, the epic Spider-Man crossover earned quite a big return.

No Way Home saw Spider-Man ing forces with Doctor Strange to undo the exposure of his secret identity in the previous Spider-Man film Far From Home. However, Strange's spell was inadvertently tampered with by Peter, resulting in villains from previous Spider-Man movies from outside the MCU arriing to wreak havoc in the interconnected universe, as well as Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield who played previous versions of Spider-Man before Holland. As a result, the final box office numbers for No Way Home are quite impressive, especially when compared to the other major MCU crossovers.

No Way Home's Domestic Box Office Is Higher Than Avengers: Infinity War

About $136 Million More

Following it's run in theaters, 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home's domestic box office numbers are notably higher than 2018's Avengers: Infinity War, the first part of the epic crossover event which preceded 2019's Avengers: Endgame, the culmination of the MCU's entire Infinity Saga. According to data from Box Office Mojo, Spider-Man: No Way Home earned $814,115,070. This means that the third MCU Spider-Man movie earned about $136 million more than Infinity War did at the domestic box office.

In 2018, Avengers: Infinity War earned $678,815,482 domestically. Ultimately, that's still an incredibly impressive number, and both MCU movies currently sit among the top 10 highest grossing movies of all time. However, the fact that Spider-Man on his own (or technically, Spider-Men) were able to net a higher return is rather notable compared to such a larger crossover movie featuring a bigger cast of heroes with the battle against Thanos the Mad Titan (one that also included Holland's Spider-Man himself). That said, 2019's Avengers: Endgame still remains the highest-grossing MCU and superhero movie of all time.

Why No Way Home's Domestic Box Office Is Above Every MCU Movie But Endgame

Massive Anticipation, Wide Appeal, And Theater Commitment

It's not hard to understand why No Way Home was so overwhelmingly successful at the box office. Firstly, anticipation for the third Spider-Man film was incredibly high with the returns of classic villains from previous, non-MCU Spider-Man movies such as Willem Dafoe's Green Goblin, Jamie Foxx's Electro, Alfred Molina's Doc Ock, and more. Likewise, Sony and Marvel kept the inclusion of Maguire and Garfield's a closely guarded secret ahead of the movie's release, resulting in massive amounts of theories, hopes, and overall hype for the crossover.

Furthermore, Spider-Man is one of the most popular superheroes of all time with a wide global appeal, on par with the likes of DC's Superman and Batman. He's certainly one of Marvel's greatest and most popular characters, dating back long before the dawn of the MCU. Furthermore, another likely reason for No Way Home's success was Sony and Marvel's commitment to keep the movie in theaters as pandemic restrictions began to lift, making the movie one of the first big entertainment draws following mass shutdowns. Additionally, No Way Home is still the highest grossing post-pandemic movie domestically.

Will The MCU's Spider-Man 4 Top No Way Home's Box Office

It Needs To Feel As Big As No Way Home (But Also Different)

With a fourth Spider-Man movie starring Tom Holland currently in development, one has to wonder if it will be able to meet or exceed No Way Home's success. While it's certainly possible, the key will be if Spider-Man 4 can provide a significant enough draw for audiences that also doesn't feel like more of what's already been seen before. It certainly seems as though No Way Home and Sony's animated Spider-Verse movies have well and truly covered the multiverse, as has other recent MCU film releases.

As such, hopes are high that Spider-Man 4 will be a more grounded story that's still just as epic. Perhaps the next Spider-Man movie will feature characters such as Daredevil and/or Kingpin who will soon be running for New York's mayor in the MCU. An encounter with the Venom symbiote could also be exciting, giving Holland's Peter Parker his own Symbiote saga now that he's on his own and living in New York following No Way Home's ending.

Source: Box Office Mojo