Some people are saying Spider-Man: Far From Home is a box office bomb, but that assessment is very wrong. Earlier this month, the concluding chapter of the MCU’s Phase 3 hit theaters, continuing the story of Peter Parker. Picking up shortly after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Far From Home saw Peter grappling between his desire to lead a normal life and fulfilling the responsibilities of being a superhero. Nick Fury recruited Peter for a new world-saving mission partially because he wanted to see if Peter was up to the task of becoming the next Iron Man.
Unsurprisingly, Far From Home was regarded as another entertaining and thrilling installment in the MCU. Critics were quick to praise the story, which combined typical high school romance/drama with blockbuster action spectacle into a funny and heartfelt package. When compared to several of the other recent live-action tentpoles from this summer, Far From Home was certainly a mark up in terms of quality. It also performed very well at the box office, exceeding initial expectations by making $185 million domestically in its first six days. Still, there are those who consider it another 2019 disappointment, though that’s off base.
People who say Far From Home underwhelmed point to the film’s $92.5 million haul from Friday-Sunday during its opening weekend, but that’s not really fair to Marvel’s latest. Its opening “weekend” was heavily skewed, since it premiered on a Tuesday (July 2) and played over the Fourth of July holiday. This wasn’t a typical release, like Spider-Man: Homecoming was. The 2017 blockbuster debuted over a normal three-day frame and tallied $117 million domestically. Odds are Far From Home would have blown that figure out of the water if it was coming out this weekend instead of going for the Independence Day crowd. It’s worth pointing out that the $92.5 million is the year’s fourth-best traditional three-day weekend, narrowly edging out Aladdin.
Far From Home has also rewritten the record books early in its run. It set a new all-time mark for highest-grossing Tuesday on its first day ($39.2 million) and even made more than Endgame on the films’ respective first Wednesdays in theaters. Far From Home was a title in high demand, as evidenced by its $603.7 million worldwide total (as of this writing). It will likely repeat as weekend champ by a healthy margin, since newcomers Stuber and Crawl are entering theaters with limited fan fare and buzz. Until The Lion King opens next week, Far From Home is the tentpole of choice and will continue to draw in large crowds - especially given all the excitement surrounding its game-changing post-credits scenes. Those who didn’t get a chance to see it over a busy holiday will want to see what the hype is about.
An argument can be made here that Endgame spoiled people with its unprecedented run earlier this year. It’s paramount to remember Endgame was unlike anything the industry had ever seen before; it was essentially a series finale that wrapped up over a decade’s worth of storylines and character arcs and was the single-biggest event in Hollywood’s biggest franchise. No film, not even Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, will be able to truly compare to that. Endgame is an unfair benchmark to expect other tentpoles to reach. It was an anomaly. Far From Home has already sailed well past its break even point and has turned a nice profit for Sony. It’ll only continue to move up the list and probably make more than Homecoming by the time it bows out.
More: Spider-Man: Far From Home Ending Explained (In Detail)
