Spider-Man Brand New Day: MCU's Long Awaited Savior?

If you haven't been living under a rock, odds are you know the newest Spider-Man film has been out and CRUSHING it, both critically and in the box office.

Now this cannot possibly come as a surprise. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has one of the biggest IPs in the superhero genre, and since it's been five years since the last live-action Spider-Man film released, anticipation for the continuation of Tom Holland's story was extremely high. Especially given the ending of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

But given the recent flops Marvel has dealt with, this new Spider-Man movie could be just what they needed to boost interest in the genre. Ever since Avengers: Endgame closed out the MCU's legendary Infinity Saga, they have oversaturated the superhero market. New TV series and movies churning out of the factory every year that failed to get viewers engaged, but as long as they made money, it didn't matter.

In 2025, they faced a problem. The two major releases of Thunderbolts and Fantastic Four: First Steps both received positive reviews overall from audiences, seemingly a breath of fresh air, right? Well, while people liked the movies more than other MCU projects of recent, the box office numbers weren't so kind. The new and rebooted Fantastic Four grossed roughly $521 million on a reported ~$200 million budget, while the Thunderbolts earned just $382 million on a $180 million budget.

"But that doesn't seem so bad?"

Well, you have to factor in the fact that most theatrical releases, especially ones as big at Marvel movies, incur high marketing and promotional costs. This means a good general rule for a budget is to multiply it by 2 or 2.5 to get the breakeven point. That means F4 likely needed roughly $400-500 million just to break even, while Thunderbolts probably needed to make $360-450 million.

This combined with the fact that 2025 was the first time since 2008 that the DC had a film outperforming Marvel's best at the box office was a rude awakening for Marvel Studios (The Dark Knight grossed over $1 billion to Iron Man's $585 million). Things looked bleak for Marvel with Avengers: Doomsday, their next big crossover event since Infinity War/Endgame, on the cusp. Especially noting the late switch from the Kang Dynasty plans given the Jonathan Majors controversy. The MCU was in complete disarray.

Enter Spider-Man. Spoilers below.

In terms of its box office success, it helps that we haven't seen Tom's Spider-Man in five years. The time jump in the story matches with the one viewers experienced waiting for what comes next for Peter, now that nobody knows who he is anymore. Naturally audiences flooded in to see it, setting opening day domestic records, and trailing only Endgame for an opening weekend worldwide box office record.

The money is still pouring in for Marvel weeks later, offering hope for the future. But another big reason it is making so much money and getting people excited about the genre again is the fact that is looks and feels like a real movie. A film that was made with care and emotion and not in a green CGI box.

The grounded, neighborhood Spider-Man setting is something sorely missed when looking back at Tom's other Spider-Man movies. While I enjoy them all to some degree, I know plenty of people who do not. The Raimi trilogy is thought of as so historic because it felt like a true hero's tale, making Spider-Man more of a human being, and not a tiny part in this large-scale universe.

That might be my favorite thing about Brand New Day. It's not some tiny cog in the MCU machine. It is a street level Spider-Man film. It meaningfully says something about mental health and excels in its tender and heartfelt moments. It doesn't rely on CGI to fuel every visual in the film. Some of the shots are so impressive and seeing videos behind the scenes of how they pulled some of those scenes off made my heart happy.

Let's talk about Tom Holland too. A career performance from him, just after his big break into non-superhero blockbusters with Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey. Tom is perfect from start to finish here, solidifying himself, in my opinion, as the best Spider-Man and Peter Parker actor we have gotten thus far.

Sadie Sink is brilliant. I'm glad I got to see it early, because there is 100% certainty her character would've been spoiled for me had I waited even a few days. It wasn't easy being on crutches after a knee surgery, but I wasn't going to miss that. Getting our first new mutant has got me so fired up for the future of the MCU. Which I would not have been able to say over the past couple of years.

Two other parts of the movie I am particularly PSYCHED about is the Punisher and the Hulk. Jon Bernthal is awesome, plain and simple. I love his Frank Castle and think pairing him up with Spidey is absolute gold. It helps that Tom and Jon have such a strong friendship and off-screen chemistry, because you can clearly see that translating in their scenes together throughout this film.

Now onto the Hulk. WE HAVE FINALLY WON. The first REAL Hulk sighting since Thor: Ragnarok (or the first 2 minutes of Infinity War). It's about damn time. Marvel has done the Hulk dirty for too long. While I can acknowledge their reluctance to overuse him and disregard Bruce's mental health and wellbeing in favor of the Hulk, it got a little ridiculous. They pushed the hybrid Bruce/smart Hulk a bit much and it kind of took away from the character as a whole for me. I can only hope we get to see Bruce with maybe a bit more control over it in the future so that we can continue to get the real Hulk as more of a hero instead of playing an antihero/even borderline "bad guy" role.

Now we have theories all over the place about that ending. Who wouldn't? I like reading about them all, but I don't want to overthink or over speculate. I do think Ned, plain and simple, ended up remembering (at least a little bit) who Peter was and their relationship after their handshake together. We did, after all, get confirmation in the LAST Spider-Man movie that Ned does indeed have Magic in his blood.

MJ on the other hand is a different story. Why was she crying while frozen? Was Jean unlocking the memories she had with Peter? She was sitting on the roof they had shared together holding the necklace Peter got her... it would make sense...

One interesting theory I saw is that Jean, while in Peter's head, was able to give her back those memories they shared, but through Peter's perspective, watching him fall in love with her through his eyes. Cool stuff. I think unlikely, but it wouldn't be my least favorite thing to find out happened.

Here's where I stray from the masses... I don't want her to remember him. I think that moment of closure was so perfectly "Spider-Man" that it would almost take away from some of its weight to have her remember and run right back to Peter. We would also get more opportunities for other Spider-Man love interests... Gwen Stacy, Black Cat... I mean let's get Peter into some deep shit.

Regardless of what you think of the ending, it can be widely agreed that this is a good Spider-Man movie. A great MCU movie. And ideally, just what Marvel needs to kickstart a renewed interest in the Superhero genre. As I didn't grow up on the Tobey movies, I can safely say it's my favorite live action Spider-Man film of all time.

As for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I see the potential for a bright future. Hopefully the success of Brand New Day will open up Marvel's eyes to the level of detail and care the fans want in their movies. It is more than worth it for them to slow down production (as Spider-Man was in fact delayed, which made a LOT of difference in the end) and release fewer projects every year, ensuring we get the best quality.

All we know is what we have. But I think we can hope for a lot more.

What do you think?