Star Wars: The Force Awakens had held the domestic box-office crown since 2015 with about $936.6 million. Brand New Day has now moved beyond that total and become the highest-grossing movie ever in the U.S. and Canada before inflation adjustment.
That qualification matters. Historical films rank very differently when ticket-price inflation is taken into account. This is the conventional unadjusted box-office record — the same chart on which The Force Awakens had remained unbeaten for 11 years.
The run started with another all-time record
Brand New Day opened to $360 million domestically, surpassing Avengers: Endgame for the largest opening weekend ever recorded in the market.
That enormous launch still did not make the final record inevitable. Endgame itself finished at roughly $858 million domestically despite its historic opening. The Force Awakens built its advantage through unusually long legs during the 2015 holiday season.
Spider-Man needed sustained demand after opening weekend too.
Forty-seven days to reach $936.8 million
The film crossed the Star Wars mark on its seventh Tuesday in theaters, 47 days after its July 31 U.S. release. By then, Brand New Day had also reached approximately $2.45 billion worldwide.
That puts it far beyond Spider-Man: No Way Home, which ended its global theatrical run at roughly $1.9 billion after releasing in a very different market in 2021.
For Sony, the new result combines two kinds of performance that do not always arrive together: a front-loaded record opening and enough staying power to chase down the largest domestic total in modern box-office history.
Tom Holland's Spider-Man has been building toward this for a decade
Holland first appeared as Peter Parker in Captain America: Civil War before leading Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2017. Brand New Day is his fourth solo Spider-Man movie and the first in the series directed by Destin Daniel Cretton.
The story follows the consequences of No Way Home, with Peter living alone after the world loses its memory of him. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon return alongside Sadie Sink, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando and Mark Ruffalo.
Sony had already called the opening weekend historic in August, when the company reported $360 million domestically and $932 million worldwide.
The Force Awakens survived Endgame and a decade of blockbusters
The previous record was difficult to reach because The Force Awakens combined a massive opening with extraordinary holiday-season endurance. It was the first new mainline Star Wars film in a decade and became an event well beyond its opening frame.
Avengers: Endgame could not catch it domestically. Neither could the other global megahits that arrived during the following years.
Brand New Day has now done it while it is still playing in theaters, so $936.8 million is a milestone rather than its final total.
One billion domestic is visible, but it is not automatic
At the moment it broke the record, the film was roughly $63 million away from becoming the first movie to reach $1 billion in unadjusted U.S.-Canada box office.
Late-run grosses decline quickly, and screen availability shrinks as new releases arrive. The remaining distance is substantial even for a film this large.
The achievement that no longer needs forecasting is the one already on the books: after 11 years, The Force Awakens is no longer number one.
