Sony Pictures’ (NYSE: SONY) “Spider-Man: No Way Home” swatted away a swarm of rival holiday season films to maintain its dominance at the U.S. box office while gaining an equal amount of global support to surpass $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales, the first film of the pandemic era to pass the seven-digit mark in box office returns.

What Happened: In the U.S., “Spider-Man: No Way Home” brought in $92.3 million over the Friday-Sunday weekend haul and $149.4 million in the Wednesday-Sunday holiday season stretch; the film is screening at 4,336 theaters. In its first two weeks in U.S. release, the film has grossed $478.1 million.

At the international box office, the film grossed $121.4 million. “Spider-Man: No Way Home” is playing in 61 overseas markets, and the combined U.S. and worldwide ticket sales have generated $1.05 billion to date. This sum is made all the more remarkable without having the film in China, the world’s largest moviegoing market – the Chinese government has not scheduled a release date for the film.

What Else Happened: Three new films that opened on Dec. 22 fell far behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home: at the box office. The animated “Sing 2” from Comcast Corporation’s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) Universal Pictures grossed $22.7 million between Friday-Sunday and $40 million from Wednesday to Sunday from 3,892 theaters,

“The Matrix Resurrections” from AT&T’s (NYSE: T) Warner Bros. brought in $14 million from Friday-Sunday and $24 million from Wednesday-Sunday from 3,552 theaters; the film was also simultaneously released in an HBO Max streaming presentation.

And the Walt Disney Co.’s (NYSE: DIS) 20th Century Studios’ presentation of “The King’s Man” absorbed $6.1 million from Friday-Sunday and $9.7 million from Wednesday-Sunday from 3,180 theaters. Another Disney-20th Century release, Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story,” ranked fifth at the holiday box office with $2.67 million from Friday-Sunday and $4 million from Wednesday to Sunday – to date, the $100 million remake of the 1961 classic has grossed $23.7 million from its first three weeks in U.S. release.

What Happens Next: This week, the only new films going into theatrical distribution are smaller films being targeted for limited release.

On Dec. 29, Sony Pictures Classics will present “Jockey,” a drama starring Clifton Collins Jr. as an aging jockey who is approached by a young man claiming to be his son. On Dec. 31, MGM-United Artists Releasing will offer “Cyrano” starring Peter Dinklage in a new interpretation of the Edmond Rostand drama, while Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX) will give screen time to historical drama “Munich – The Edge of War” starring Jeremy Irons as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, and GROFilms has the British science-fiction thriller “Sensation” starring Eugene Simon of “Games of Throne” fame.

Over on the streaming side of the business, the Starz subsidiary of Lions Gate Entertainment Corp. (NYSE: LGF-A) offers a Dec. 27 premiere of “Finding Kendrick Johnson,” a documentary on the investigation into the 2013 death of a Black teenager at a Georgia high school. And Netflix will wrap its 2021 streaming slate with the Dec. 31 premiere of the animated flick “Seal Team” featuring voice performances by J.K. Simmons, Patrick Warburton, Dolph Lundgren and Sharlto Copley.

What Also Happened: British actress Sally Ann Howes passed away on Dec. 19 at the age of 91. She began acting as a teenager in the British film industry before focusing her career primarily on the London and Broadway stages and on television.

While Howes’ film work as an adult was relatively limited, she achieved movie immortality as the confectionary company heiress Truly Scrumptious in the 1968 musical classic “Chitty Chitty Bang Bang,” where her versatility was captured on film in several memorable segments including the sequence where she teams with Dick Van Dyke in an audacious plot to overthrow the tyrannical rulers of the Kingdom of Vulgaria.

Photo: Tom Holland in "Spider-Man: No Way Home," courtesy of Sony Pictures

© 2021 Benzinga.com. Benzinga does not provide investment advice. All rights reserved.

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