The COVID-19 pandemic has been a wrecking ball to movie theaters across the country, but the newest iteration of the Spider-Man saga is giving in-person cinema lovers a breath of fresh air.
Spider-Man: No Way Home premiered last weekend amid a global surge of the highly contagious omicron variant of coronavirus. While some might have expected the movie’s box office premiere to see dampened attendance given the surge in new cases, quite the opposite was true, with the movie actually breaking records.
“The surprise was not that it was a big success, the surprise was how big a success,” Patrick Corcoran, vice president and chief communications officer for the National Association of Theatre Owners, told the Washington Examiner.
Corcoran said that no one expected the newest Spider-Man flick, which was directed by Jon Watts, to be the second-highest-grossing domestic debut in box office history. The movie netted some $260 million over the weekend, with only 2019’s Avengers: Endgame bringing in more revenue.
SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME BECOMES FIRST MOVIE TO BREAK $100M OPENING IN NORTH AMERICA SINCE COVID-19
The movie, which stars Tom Holland as the titular character and Zendaya as his love interest, also ranks as the third-largest worldwide debut in history, with $600 million in global revenue — a figure that also makes it the most successful December debut in world history.
Corcoran attributed the film’s success to its being well-made, well-marketed, and exclusive to movie theaters. Several movies since the pandemic have sidestepped theaters in favor of going directly to streaming or have been released in theaters and streaming simultaneously. The new Spider-Man film shows that the allure of leaving the house to see a new film still remains, even after nearly two years of adjusting to a world with COVID-19.
There is also an element of fans yearning to see their favorite stars on the big screen after perhaps forgoing movie theater attendance for months.
Brian Marks, executive director of the University of New Haven’s Entrepreneurship and Innovation Program, said he was also surprised with how successful the newest installation of the Spider-Man saga has been. He said the surge is representative of pent-up demand but also noted that the film represents a particular subset of film, Marvel superhero movies, that have almost a cult-like following.
“So with that, you have in essence a level of inelastic demand … people have the opportunity to go out, and this is something they really, really want to do,” he told the Washington Examiner.
“We’re not seeing the end of the brick-and-mortar movie theater, but what we are seeing is an economic transformation, a structural transformation,” Marks said of the growth of streaming services. Seeing how big of a hit Spider-Man was shows that there are opportunities for success in the post-COVID theater scene but that success will likely not be as broad-based as before, Marks said.
The omicron variant now makes up a vast majority of the country’s COVID-19 cases, quickly overtaking delta as the dominant strain. While one might think of movie theaters as dangerous for viral spread, experts say that is not the case.
“One of the important things to point out is that there has been no outbreak traced to a movie theater anywhere in the world during this pandemic,” Corcoran explained, calling them a “remarkably safe environment.”
The way movie theaters are constructed is not conducive to spreading the virus, Corcoran said. He noted that people attending films are not facing one another or talking like they would in a bar or restaurant. There are also high ceilings in theaters and different ventilation for every auditorium.”
But what does the future hold in store?
Marks said that to remain relevant, movie theaters need to emphasize — particularly for films with cult followings — the difference in the viewing experience between a theater and home television. He said cinema houses need to market themselves not just as a place to see a movie but rather as a more expansive destination.
“It’s not just showing the film, it’s providing an environment that is going to enhance the experience,” he said.
For some films, though, given the ongoing transformation of the industry, Marks thinks that in the future, it will likely be more economical for producers to just pipe them straight through to streaming.
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Looking ahead, there are several movies on the horizon in 2022 that people will be able to see in theaters. Corcoran said that while big blockbuster movies like Spider-Man: No Way Home are important for theaters, a wide abundance of middle-range revenue films that appeal to different adult audiences are also crucial to boost attendance.
“People want their lives back,” he said, emphasizing that going to the theater to see a film as opposed to streaming it is an “experience,” one he and cinema lovers across the world hope will come back with resiliency.
