Weekend estimates: Spider-Man up to sixth all-time, 355 arrives with $4.8 million

January 9, 2022

The 355

Spider-Man: No Way Home continues to power its way towards more records this weekend, passing Jurassic World and Titanic to become the sixth-highest-grossing film in history in North America. If you count Avatar as part of the Disney family now, No Way Home is also the new record holder for a non-Disney film. In the face of that competition, The 355 fell a little short of expectations, with $4.8 million.

Here’s how the numbers look this morning…




While The 355 was the worst performing film in the top 10 compared to our model’s prediction, it only fell 17% short, which isn’t an awful result. According to Universal, the film’s audience skewed female (56%), and slightly older than normal, with 18% of the crowd 55+, and 49% over 35. That’s a demographic profile that general predicts greater caution and lower box office during the pandemic. With a B+ Cinema Score and 82% Audience Score on Rotten Tomatoes, combined with its demographics, the film could have decent legs, particularly since the the release slate for the rest of January is looking increasingly thin.

Although the market as a whole will miss our model’s prediction by 5%, that’s entirely accounted for by No Way Home dipping a bit more sharply than predicted. Given the unpredictability of the weekend after the New Year Holiday, that suggests that the current high COVID case counts aren’t measurably deterring filmgoers. There’s an argument that’s good news for the industry, although it’ll be a while before we have a good picture of progress.

One thing we can be sure of is that No Way Home continues to have a good chance of ending in third place all time in North America. It’ll need another $100 million to beat Avatar, which still seems doable: it’s accumulated $55 million over the last seven days, and is declining about 40%–45% week-to-week now. Sony might need to give it a bit of a kick to get over the finish line, but we’ll have a clearer picture this time next week, and the chart looks promising right now…




- Weekend studio estimates
- All-time top-grossing movies in North America

Bruce Nash,

Filed under: Weekend Estimates, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The 355