Spider-Man: Far From Home Eyeing $160 Million Dollar Debut

Move over, Avengers, and make way for your friendly neighborhood wall-crawler.

Spider-Man: Far From Home, the final film of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Phase Three, is tracking for an opening frame in the $150-$160 million dollar range, according to industry analysts. The flick has a number of factors working in its favor which will almost certainly help it eclipse the performace of its predecessor, 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming. (via The Hollywood Reporter)

First, the film will essentially have an extra weekend in which to beat the tar out of Homecoming's respectable $117 million dollar opening. Spidey's first MCU solo outing opened on July 7, missing out on the Fourth of July holiday and posting its total over three days. Far From Home, by contrast, will open on July 2, a Tuesday; it'll almost certainly move a few tickets leading into the Fourth and the weekend proper, and that entire six-day run will count when its opening weekend figures are being tallied. 

Second, Far From Home will absolutely benefit from the Avengers effect. The climactic event of the entire MCU up to this point, Avengers: Endgame, is still fresh in everybody's minds — heck, it's still in theaters — and if history is any indication, releasing a solo adventure starring a beloved character hot on the heels of a mega-blockbuster team-up picture is going to wind up looking like a genius move on the part of Marvel Studios.

Just look at 2013's Iron Man 3, which was the first MCU flick released after the seismic, paradigm-shifting event that was the original Avengers. Sure, ol' Shellhead's first two solo outings (the first of which, of course, kicked off the whole shebang) performed admirably; Iron Man scored $585 million dollars globally, and its sequel did even better, notching a $624 million dollar worldwide total. The three-quel, however, was a different beast entirely. Audiences hungry for more Tony Stark after his triumphant obliteration of the Chitauri fleet at The Avengers' conclusion flocked to the picture in droves, and when the dust settled, Iron Man 3 had nearly doubled the total of its predecessor with a stunning $1.2 billion dollar global take.

Spider-Man, of course, gets butts in seats — period. With the exception of Sony Pictures Animation's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, no Spidey film has failed to gross north of $700 million dollars worldwide. Strangely, Sam Raimi's much-maligned Spider-Man 3 is still the big kahuna among these, with an $891 million dollar total — but Homecoming is a very close second, with $880 million dollars. (Spider-Verse, though, should take heart; all those other Spider-flicks may have outgrossed it handily, but none of them took home any Oscars.)

Audiences have widely embraced Tom Holland's younger, geekier Peter Parker since his debut in 2016's Captain America: Civil War, and the trailers for Far From Home have promised that the figure of Stark — Parker's well-loved, heroic late mentor — will loom large over its proceedings. Stark's buddy Happy Hogan (Jon Favreau) will be around to commiserate with Parker over their mutual loss, as will Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders), all fan-favorite characters. The flick will also introduce Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio, sporting a crazily comic book-accurate costume, and — if recent rumors are to be believed — it'll also be the movie that, at long last, introduces Norman Osborn to the MCU. (For the record, we totally believe the rumors.)

All of these factors suggest an absolutely bank-breaking performance for Far From Home. In fact, we're going to go ahead and predict right now that it will become the first Spider-Man movie to breach the $1 billion dollar mark, and it will do so easily. With the initial deal allowing Marvel and Sony's shared custody of the wall-crawler coming to a close, there has been some speculation lately regarding what Sony's next move will be. After all, the Spidey-less Venom did just fine, grossing nearly as much as Homecoming and emboldening the studio to move forward with a sequel, as well as the Jared Leto-starring Morbius (a solo vehicle for the "Living Vampire" and longtime Spider-Man nemesis). Will Sony, in fact, decide that Spidey has now been successfully rehabilitated, and they don't need Marvel anymore?

We wouldn't bet on it. Far From Home will show the true power of having the web-slinger connected to a larger universe, and with Sony reaping all of the profits from his solo outings, there's no reason to think the studio will be anything but totally psyched to continue their relationship with Marvel. It would surprise us not in the least if we were to get news regarding an extension of the deal not long after Far From Home's release, which of course we'll be keeping an eye out for.

But in the meantime, we simply can't wait to take in the flick and digest all of its possible implications for the future of the MCU. We'll be front and center in the theater on July 2, and you can count on us to bring you a wealth of expert analysis.