How Far Can Marvel Keep Pushing Its Own Success?
In its opening weekend alone, Spider-Man: No Way Home became the highest-grossing movie of the year. On pace to be the only billion-dollar film of 2021 and already setting the record for biggest December opening ever, Spidey does impressive numbers.
And as No Way Home is the third Tom Holland entry, the ninth overall Spider-Man movie, and the 27th release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, its numbers are also testament to the enduring popularity of superhero movies. But while it’s given theaters hope for post-pandemic breakout hits, can the MCU print money forever? After the crescendo of 2019’s Avengers: Endgame, where does the comic franchise go from here? (And what does it mean for all films if audiences continue to follow?)
Staff writers David Sims, Shirley Li, and Spencer Kornhaber discuss No Way Home, its unique lens on movie stardom, and what it means for the state of films. As Sims wrote in his review, it’s an undeniably watchable good time, but also perhaps a new nadir for Hollywood. Listen to their conversation here:
The following transcript has been edited for length and clarity. It contains spoilers for Spiderman: No Way Home.
David Sims: Hello, everybody. We’re here to discuss Spider-Man: No Way Home—the 27th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, oh boy, how many Spider-Man movies alone have there been?
Shirley Li: This is the eighth, not including Spider-Verse.
Sims: And I guess you should, given that this film is Verse-interested, so that’s nine movies branded explicitly as Spider-Man movies in the last 20-odd years. And we are here to talk about the third Tom Holland–starring Spider-Man, on top of the other various Marvel movies he’s been in. It’s an explicit sequel in the “Home” saga, following up on Far From Home in 2019 and the initial Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017—a reference to Spider-Man “coming home” to the Marvel Universe.
Shirley, you and I see Marvel movies as part of our job, and we enjoy a lot of them. Spencer, you had not seen any of the recent Spider-Man films. You’re a more casual Marvel viewer in general, right? Have you not really seen many at all?
Well, I’m a human being in, and then , and then , I’m just like: “Tom is Spider-Man.”
