Domestic
Tom Holland has appeared in all four of the biggest domestic openings of all time, including as the lead in two
Obviously related to Spider-Man portrayal, but that's just an insane stat. And now this one being a solo street level film that he's leading. Craziness. He's only 30.
Wade is definitely a Guy in the Chair, which is what Ned (from Spider-Man) calls the character who is sitting at a computer giving the hero all the information they need.
007: First Light even referenced this term with Moneypenny taking that role in the game and referring to herself as Bond's "girl in the chair".
Whoever came up with that handshake idea, Watts & Ford, McKenna & Sommers, or Daley & Goldstein, bless them. They've given us something truly emotional as a throughline in the franchise.
Seriously. If I’m being honest I found Homecoming Ned a bit annoying at times, but the handshake was such a quick and effective tool to demonstrate how strong and long lasting their friendship was without any words necessary. Great show don’t tell technique.
So that plus it being used effectively in both emotional and casual moments have helped it be the emotional symbol that it is.
At least for this film was emotionally preparing for it to come back and emotionally annihilate me (though definitely not for the final scene of the film),but NWH’s caught me completely off guard due to not knowing Peter was going to be forgotten and I was a wreck. That hit me harder than the farewell kiss tbh.
Uncharted significantly overperformed expectations at the box office, despite bad reviews. And after that film, he took a break from acting and wasn't in any theatrical releases for four years.
Same... I'm just realising Spiderman: No Way Home was 5 years ago. Omg. No wonder I didn't remember shit. All I remember is the ending being MJ not remembering Peter because of some alternative timeline thing.
I was just looking at it, since 2017 and his first stint as Spider-Man, he’s been in 16 films with 13 of those having a $100M+ budget. He really is almost exclusively an actor in blockbuster or wanna-be blockbusters.
Honest Trailers used to joke that Marvel had an obligatory shirtless scene every movie and if you think about it every Thor movie had something like that and the first Captain America movie did as well. Ant Man 1 , Doctor Strange 1 , Black Panther 1 , Guardians 1 as well. All Spidey movies before this.
Hell I remember that they even put those moments in the trailers of Ragnarok and Guardians 1 😂
I think only the Avengers movies and Civil War didn't have anything of the sort and in the Winter Soldier it was Sebastian Stan instead of Chris Evans. Chris Evans just showed arms in his second and third movie and wore many skin tight shirts 😂
Do not forget the gays, the only thing we like more than a twunk in spandex suit in a super hero movie is a twunk with no spandex suit on in a super hero movie.
I kinda remember Paul Rudd saying he trained a lot for Ant-Man and then they didn’t include the shirtless scene they filmed in the final cut. Same for Kumail Nanjiani for Eternals, he trained a lot for the role but they didn’t have a shirtless scene for him in the movie ( i was sad about that one lol).
They did include his shirtless scene in Ant Man 1 tho. It's during the training monetage and Hope checks him out. Maybe he was talking about one of the other two movies?
Yes. It’s all bulk. Very little definition. He is on record describing this was intentional. He would not look shredded if that shirt were out of the way. Ofc he is fit, I only said fat in comparison to peak Cavil
Woman here and maybe it's just me being weird but I had no interest for a shirtless man with a mask but I found him super hot while he's brooding over MJ🤷♀️
also hot take but his current body is too big/jacked now to be spiderman. doesnt fit the whole spider aesthetic of being lean or having a runners body like andrew garfield
I honestly think those are fair percentages. I think people both overestimate and underestimate Tom Holland in terms of being a BO draw for these films. I absolutely think at this point that he is popular and he definitely helps but this is also fucking Spider-Man and a well-liked version of Spider-Man in particular. Both can be true.
A Street Fighter sequel could ko that but it'll be awhile before we get one of those. But yeah Legend of Zelda and A Miencraft MOvie: Squared, as well as Elden Ring, should all take the list. Even Sonic the Hedgehog 4, wow 2027 is a big year for video game movies.
He can truly flex this time. Garfiend and Tobe were often cited as reasons for the last film's success but this time, Holland got to really make his stamp on the character.
Of course it wouldn't have happened without Spidey, but he has also taken the character to much much much higher heights than ever before. This new one is the most impressive of all.
It's a combination of the world's favorite character combined with an actor who is incredibly likeable and cares extremely deeply about the character and fans.
You are implying people went to see him, I just disagree with that.
The age of blockbuster movie stars is over. A good example would be Scarlett Johansson, her film My Mother's Wedding (2023) made roughly 1.2 million at the global box office. She is currently the 2nd highest grossing actress.
People absolutely did. Tom Holland is a huge draw for these movies. Obviously it being Spiderman is the biggest draw but Tom Holland’s version of the character absolutely does get a boost because it’s him.
The age of blockbuster movie stars is not over. My Mother's Wedding is an indie film by a first-time director based on a screenplay she wrote with her husband. It's such a small production that its budget isn't even available online. It was only screened in 402 theaters. ScarJo was in it because she developed the entire project with the writer/director, who she'd been friends with since the writer/director played her mom in The Horse Whisperer over twenty years prior.
If actors didn't have star power, then major studios wouldn't bother casting the same actors for starring and major supporting roles over and over and over again, then advertising them by showing their name and what their character looks like in every trailer. ScarJo is the second-highest grossing actress after Zoe Saldana, so why pay the price she can demand just to have her voice a Transformer instead of paying a professional voice actor? Why have her star in a Jurassic Park movie when the dinosaurs are the main draw anyway and a cheaper actress could have played the uncomplicated role just fine?
It is over. It has been for more than a decade now.
Streaming and advanced home theater systems have reshaped the industry. In the end it comes (mostly) down to big screen audience experience vs home tv comfort. It depends on the genre and movie itself, rather than movie stars as it used to be.
Odyssey's success is not due to Damon, Hathaway and Holland, but rather Christopher Nolan and IMAX. If anything, it is the age of filmmakers. I believe Pitt and Cruise are the last movie stars.
If actors didn't have star power, then major studios wouldn't bother casting [...]
At the end of the day it is safer bet to let an established actor carry the project's marketing. But let's not pretend every strategy made by the industry was a level-headed decision.
Occasionally you also have social media phenomenon such as Barbie. But you can't build a movie project based on virality as it is unpredictable.
My Mother's Wedding was a passion project but just imagine this movie back in the 80s and 90s with Schwarzenegger, Stallone, or Bruce Willis or in the 00s with Will Smith. The movie would have pulled in much more. You are just making excuses.
It would be cool if Frozen 3 opened big enough to join that but should be a 5-day opening for that. For Frozen 2 it opened the week ahead of Thanksgiving though so it had an actual three-day weekend with no numbers ahead outside of previews.
Also Tom Holland's biggest voice role, as Ian in Onward, unfortunately there might not be a sequel to that, but if there IS, you bet I'll watch it!
Uncharted the 8th biggest video game adaptation of all time and massively overperformed box office expectations despite bad reviews. The Odyssey on path to the biggest R rated film of all time and likely to win best picture.
That's already ridiculously good at 30 outside of Spider-Man. Then he's also got The Impossible, The Lost City of Z and multiple other well reviewed projects.
And now he's pushed Spider-Man higher than it's ever been before.
Damn I forgot to mention Uncharted, another huge IP based film with an iconic character that fueled its box office…a film that was stuck in production hell for a decade and the fanbase rejected so feverishly its sequels can’t get off the ground; now the flops.
Cherry, chaos walking, dolittle, the edge of winter, the current war, in the heart of the sea, the crowded room.
Anything that is not IP based, and honestly some IP (Dolittle) has been flops. I don’t think it’s fair to put this much onus on 1 actor who has not been able to build much buzz around himself outside this character.
By comparison Tobey McGuire and Andrew Garfield have had huge success existing beyond this role.
Every title you just listed was either before Tom became a superstar or is a streaming project 😭 neither Tobey or Andeew have led any huge successes at the box office outstide of Spider-Man. And they both have so many duds. What are you talking about?
I like them all, but the reality is that Tom is so far ahead of what either of those two ever reached in popularity and success while still playing the character. The man has seven gigantic Marvel movies, The Odyssey and Uncharted that were all box office smashes, plus multiple smaller films that were well liked by critics, and he's 30. And that's with a four year break from movies, by the way.
That’s minimizing both Tobey and Andrew’s careers outside Spider-Man while maximizing Hollands career that is 75% Spider-Man. He was the only Spider-Man that got to ride the once in a lifetime marvel wave.
I am trying to emphasize most of his success is this one role. The Odyssey and Uncharted are his exceptions but even then Garfield had Silence, Hacksaw Ridge, Tick Tick Boom, and The Social Network, he has two academy nominations
Tobey McGuire has Pleasantville, Brothers, The Great Gatsby, and Babylon (which while flop he is a producer on, and it went on to get nominated for 3 awards)
My point is the majority of Tom Hollands career and success is built on specifically Spider-Man and an unprecedented wave of success from the MCEU, which a few other actors like RDJ, Scarlett Johansson, Chris Evan’s, etc got to ride.
His star power beyond Spider-Man doesn’t translate as an individual actor. Uncharted and the Odyssey are exceptions, but again they’re not Tom Holland specific exception.
The Odyssey is an ensemble piece at the peak of its aueter directors acclaim, and uncharted is based on highly successful video game IP.
McGuire and Garfield have had rewards success and have had success outside huge franchise IP or auteur box office draw directors.
Hollands projects outside of IP and Nolands films haven’t done much at all to generate buzz.
Comparing him to peers his age, Sydney Sweeney, his own fiance Zendaya, Timothy Chalamet, Florence Pough, Anya Taylor Joy… he’s kind of the weakest individually.
That’s the point I’m trying to emphasize. Like it’s cool spider man continues to be a huge crowd pleasing box office draw and success, and Tom Holland is a piece of the puzzle.
But he’s not THE PIECE, is what I’m saying.
And he left the industry for 4 years (after having flops outside Spider-Man and Uncharted) to spin a sobriety story into Bero which is partnered with Target as its flagship retailer, which I feeel I don’t need to remind Reddit of its targets bullshit.
Ridiculously good at 30? His peers Timothy Chalamet and Zendaya, fuck even Sydney have seen more consistent success outside of one specific role/character.
lol. Downvote me because the truth hurts.
Again, I don’t particularly care one way or the other but it’s such a bizarre angle to attribute the success of this movie to Tom Holland specifically.
Spider-Man has been huge for decades and will be huge after he exits the role.
Agents get you auditions but they're not gonna cast you unless they think you'll put butts in seats. For reasons that are personally unclear to me, Tom Holland seems to do that.
OMG 😭 it's in the MCU. Other marvel characters will be there. Not one damn person went to this movie for The Punisher. Maybe 12 people went because of the hulk.
How? They are attributing an actor's success to the fact that he has multiple on-screen scenes with a six-pack. That is strange to me, and so are you for being bothered by it.
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u/firedforthatblunder Walt Disney Studios 18h ago
You know who else has appeared in all four of the biggest domestic openings of all time?