French Box Office: the Real Opening Figures for Spider-Man: Brand New Day

The opening weekend: the confirmed figures

This article was first published with day-one figures only. Here is what the full weekend delivered, first in France and then worldwide.

France: a million admissions in under 48 hours

After the 650,130 admissions taken on the Wednesday, the film passed one million admissions in under two days. The trade press expected the two-million mark to fall around 1 August.

To put that pace in context, the best seven-day opening of the year belonged to L’Odyssée with 1,841,065 admissions. Brand New Day was on course to beat that in its first week.

The character's historic benchmarks, however, remain well ahead: No Way Home drew 2,867,515 admissions on its opening, and Spider-Man 3 2,778,533. That is the comparison that matters, and it is also the one most articles leave out.

Worldwide: the second-biggest opening of all time

The film took $927 million over its global opening weekend, across roughly 90,000 screens. That is the second-biggest worldwide opening in cinema history, behind Avengers: Endgame and its $1.22 billion.

In North America alone, the opening weekend reached $355 million, again the second-best performance ever recorded. Preview screenings there had already set a record with $72 million.

In France, the opening weekend came to roughly $26.6 million, a benchmark figure for that market.

What these figures mean, and what they do not

An opening is not a success. The second-biggest worldwide launch measures the anticipation built up before release, not how satisfied audiences were. The second and third weekends will settle it, by revealing how sharply attendance drops.

The same caveat applies to France. A day-one record measured against 2026 is not a historic record: the film sits only tenth on the list of best French opening days, and it remains a long way off No Way Home's opening numbers.

For the critical context around these figures, see our round-up of the press reaction, and to understand what the film is actually about, our analysis of the ending and the post-credits scene.

The French day-one figures are in, and they deserve better than the shortcuts doing the rounds since this morning. Spider-Man: Brand New Day posted a considerable opening in France, but several sites are already crediting it with records it does not hold, confusing takings with admissions or forgetting that a day-one figure cannot be compared with just any other. Here is what the film actually achieved, with the sources and the caveats that go with them.

The figure: 650,130 admissions in one day

According to CBO Box-Office data relayed by AlloCiné on 30 July 2026, and cross-checked the same day by Boxoffice Pro, COMICSBLOG and Zickma, the film drew 650,130 admissions in France on Wednesday 29 July, its release day. All four sources give the same figure to the nearest admission.

One detail changes everything and is consistently passed over: that result was achieved without a single preview screening. The film did not build on Tuesday-evening showings, whose admissions are usually added to the day-one total. That is 650,130 admissions in a single ordinary day of release, which makes the performance far more impressive than it looks — and, as we shall see, far harder to compare.

What that figure is really worth in box-office history

That is the tenth-best opening day ever recorded in France, all films combined. One caveat applies straight away: the reference rankings fold preview screenings into the day-one total. So we are comparing a figure without previews against figures that include them. The ranking is indicative, not a like-for-like measure.

It is, on the other hand, beyond any argument, the best opening day in France since Avengers: Endgame and its 692,142 admissions in 2019. Mind the wording: Endgame is still ahead. Several sites have written that Brand New Day overtook it; that is arithmetically false, and it is the kind of error a reader checks in three seconds.

The all-time record for a single day of release in France still belongs to Spectre, with 850,297 admissions on 11 November 2015. Then come Spider-Man 3 and then Taxi 2. Brand New Day therefore holds no admissions record: it is tenth overall, second within its own series, and sits in the leading pack of superhero films.

For the queue

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The series record still belongs to Spider-Man 3

The best French opening day for a Spider-Man film dates from 2007: Spider-Man 3 drew 804,345 admissions, across 580 prints. Brand New Day therefore finishes 154,215 admissions short of the record, around 19% below it.

Here again the raw comparison is misleading, and honesty requires saying so. That 1 May 2007 was a Tuesday bank holiday, which mechanically inflated attendance across the whole day. The same bias applies to Spectre, released on 11 November. Comparing an ordinary Wednesday in late July with a spring bank holiday means comparing two different markets.

The comparison that really counts: No Way Home

This is where the performance really stands out. No Way Home, the franchise's biggest hit, took 476,494 admissions on Wednesday 15 December 2021 — across 882 prints. Brand New Day beats that by almost 36%, with 665 prints, a quarter fewer screens.

In other words, the film is filling more seats from fewer points of distribution, which points to demand that is more concentrated and more intense. The context of the previous film, still weighed down by the public health situation, explains part of the gap but not all of it. To measure the distance travelled since, our feature on No Way Home and our assessment of its impact put the two releases back in their respective eras.

The indicators that show the real intensity

Beyond the total, two measures tell the story of the day better. The average per print stands at 977 admissions, a very high level for a summer release. And according to Boxoffice Pro, the average per screening reaches 181 people, where Minions: The Rise of Gru, which held the best post-Covid mark with 510,325 admissions, topped out at 136.

Again according to Boxoffice Pro, almost a quarter of day-one admissions were in premium formats — even though the IMAX screens were taken up by another exclusive — and 21% of showings were programmed in the original language. The film also marks the third-biggest launch in Sony Pictures' history in France.

Air-conditioned screens get cold

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The dollar record: what to make of it

English-language trackers have relayed a spectacular figure: around $6.8 million in takings on French soil in a single day, presented as the biggest opening day of all time in France, ahead of Endgame's $6 million.

The figure is real; reading it calls for caution. This is a record for takings, not for admissions. It is mechanically driven by ticket-price inflation since 2019 and by the high proportion of premium, more expensive showings. In terms of people sitting in a cinema — the only measure that counts historically in France, where the box office is counted in admissions and not in euros — the film remains tenth. Confusing the two amounts to announcing a record that does not exist.

The errors doing the rounds since this morning

A few claims repeated all over the place do not survive checking. That the film overtook Endgame: false, 650,130 is lower than 692,142. That No Way Home took 464,000 admissions on its opening day: false, the exact figure is 476,494. That the film drew 680,000 admissions: that figure concerns South Korea, not France.

Two other traps are subtler. The number of day-one showings is reported inconsistently across sources, so it is better to quote none at all. And the Paris figures for the earliest showings, often brandished as a national indicator, cover only a handful of screens before two in the afternoon: they say nothing about France as a whole.

The real record to watch is not that one

An opening does not make a run, and the real stakes will be settled over time. The previous films in the trilogy finished on 2,311,502 admissions for Homecoming in 2017, 3,226,105 for Far From Home in 2019, and 7,319,651 for No Way Home in 2021.

That last figure remains the biggest all-time success for a superhero film in France. It is that total, and not a single-day record, that Brand New Day will have to approach to make history. The published projections suggest ambitious totals, but they are only projections: none counts as a result until the weeks have actually passed. We will update this article as the figures come in.

How to read a box-office figure without getting it wrong

The most common confusion sets admissions against takings. In France, the box office has historically been counted in admissions, not in euros: it is a market convention that allows a 2026 film to be compared with a 2007 film without being distorted by ticket-price inflation. English-language rankings work the other way round, in dollars, which mechanically favours recent releases and premium showings. Both measures are valid; they simply do not tell the same story.

The second trap is the time frame. A ‘first day’ can mean the single day of release, or that day plus the previous evening’s previews. An ‘opening’ can cover one day, a three-day weekend, or a full first week. Comparing two figures without checking their scope produces gaps of several hundred thousand admissions, and it is the most frequent error in hurried write-ups.

The third trap is the number of prints. A film released on 900 screens and a film released on 600 are not playing the same match. That is why the average per print is often more telling than the raw total: it measures the density of demand rather than the power of the distribution. A big total across many screens can hide half-empty showings, while a more modest total on few prints can signal a phenomenon.

The weekend that will decide everything

A first day measures the anticipation built up before release. It says almost nothing about perceived quality or about how long the film will last commercially. Wednesday’s audience are the converted: they had booked, sometimes weeks earlier. The real test comes from Thursday to Sunday, when the audience widens to those who were waiting for an opinion.

The indicator to watch is therefore the hold: the gap between Wednesday and the days that follow. A film carried by favourable word of mouth sees its attendance hold up, or even climb on the Saturday. A disappointing film collapses from the Thursday, whatever its opening figures were. With a solid critical reception and an enthusiastic opening audience, every signal is favourable — but they all remain to be confirmed.

The second milestone will come in week two. A contained drop would confirm a trajectory towards the franchise’s heights; a brutal drop would reduce the film to a very good opening with no follow-through. That is the moment, and not before, when projections for the French total will start to mean something.

What this opening says about the French audience

One data point is worth underlining: more than a fifth of day-one showings were programmed in the original language, and almost a quarter of admissions were in more expensive premium formats. That describes an audience that is not content simply to see the film, but chooses how to see it.

That is consistent with what we have observed for years with this franchise in France: a core of highly engaged fans, doubled by a broad family audience that follows the character from one generation to the next. This twin base explains how steady the series’ results have been, from the first film in 2002 to today. Anyone extending the experience beyond the cinema will find the selection dedicated to the film along with the figures, the posters, the T-shirts and the gift ideas in the shop.

Why such an appetite?

Three factors are stacking up. First, a four-year wait since the previous instalment, sustained by a campaign that made secrecy its main argument — to the point that the identity of one character dominated the conversation for more than a year. Then a solid critical reception, set out in our round-up of the press verdicts, which settled the doubts of undecided viewers.

Finally the calendar: a release in the middle of the school holidays, in a slot where family competition is thin. Viewers discovering the saga will find everything they need in our guide to what you should have watched first, and hesitant parents will find concrete guidance in our feature on the recommended age. After the screening, the analysis of the post-credits scene answers the question everyone asks on the way out.

For following the morning figures

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Box-office figures land first thing in the morning. You may as well read them over the right mug.

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Frequently asked questions

Has Brand New Day broken a record in France?

No admissions record. It posts the best opening day since Endgame and the tenth best of all time, which is remarkable, but the word ‘record’ only applies to takings in dollars, a measure distorted by ticket prices.

Why does the absence of previews change how we read this?

Because rankings usually add preview screenings to the first day. A film that holds none starts with an accounting handicap. At equal rank, its pure day of release is therefore denser than that of several films placed above it.

How many admissions can the film reach in total?

Impossible to say seriously after one day. The published projections are ambitious, but the trajectory will depend entirely on word of mouth over the next two weeks. The only useful benchmark remains No Way Home’s 7,319,651 admissions.

Why did the film not hold any previews?

The strategy has not been commented on publicly, but it is consistent with the campaign: a film that made secrecy its main argument had every reason to limit advance screenings, which are a source of leaks. The gamble turned into an accounting advantage, since all the admissions were concentrated into a single day.

Is the number of prints high or low?

Fairly measured for a blockbuster of this scale. By comparison, No Way Home opened on 882 prints, a third more. This tighter distribution explains the very high average per print, and in theory leaves room to widen the release in the weeks ahead.

Will these figures change again?

The day-one numbers are confirmed and should not move further. Everything touching the weekend, the first week and the final cumulative total, on the other hand, will change daily. Be wary of articles that present a projection as a settled result: these are two different kinds of information.

Where can the official figures be found?

The daily figures come from CBO Box-Office, picked up by AlloCiné, Boxoffice Pro and the specialist sites. Be wary of aggregators that copy without dating: several incorrect figures are already circulating, including on values twenty years old.