What just happened? Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the first flick of the pandemic era to surpass the $i billion marker at the global box function. The superhero picture show premiered at the Pull a fast one on Village Theatre in Los Angeles on December xiii before going nationwide on Dec 17. It is the first picture show since 2022's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to bring in more than than $1 billion globally, managing to practice so in but 12 days.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens also reached the $1 billion mark in only 12 days. Only two other films – Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame – did so faster, in xi days and five days, respectively. Equally it stands, the new Spider-Human is the highest-grossing pic of 2022.

Few trades were impacted by the pandemic every bit heavily as the film manufacture. Theaters around the globe shut down for extended periods in response to lockdown efforts, and when studios started making deals to premiere movies at home, it looked every bit though the traditional theater model was in jeopardy of disappearing forever.

Resilient theater owners hung on. When they did start to reopen, there was a lack of new content to screen every bit movie production was too impacted by the pandemic. Drastic to get customers back in, some theaters experimented with screening archetype movies similar Back to the Future, Jaws and Psycho at discounted rates. Others rented out auditoriums for private screenings.

Covid remains relevant with the latest Omicron variant making the rounds, just Spider-Man's Christmas haul proves that consumers still take an appetite for the traditional theater experience.