Tomdaya’s new record

I saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day on Friday afternoon, loved it so much. Loved it so much I behaved like Duana, a theatre kid, in the theatre during certain key moments – gasping (I am not usually a gasper) and sighing audibly and also deep breathing at parts, plus at the end, or almost end, I cried.

There was no doubt that Brand New Day would be big, it was only a question of HOW big. And now we know: Spider-Man: Brand New Day is officially the biggest; the highest domestic opening weekend of all time with $360 million at the North American box office, which is more than Avengers: Endgame. And a worldwide total, so far, after just four days, of over $930 million so, basically, a billion.

It is also the biggest weekend box office in history, powered by both Brand New Day and The Odyssey. And by the way, The Odyssey’s total worldwide box office is about $920 million so far, just shy of a billion, and it hasn’t opened in markets in the East yet so a billion and a half is guaranteed.

That’s Tom Holland and Zendaya starring in the top two movies of the year by critical and commercial standard, two billion dollar movies. And, um, she still has Dune 3 on the schedule! So, as we’ve been saying, it’s an unprecedented achievement for them as a married couple. By every measure, they are the Movie Star Power Couple. Because they, as individuals, and as a couple, had so much to do with the success of these films. Industry analysts have been doing the deep dives – audience polling is confirming that it’s not just the Spider-Man brand that resulted in these kinds of numbers; it was specifically Tom Holland’s portrayal of the character and the connection he’s built with the audience and also his co-stars over the three previous movies that people were coming to see. For others it was Zendaya, her star quality, that has now ranged from independent films to mega blockbusters. And of course the investment that was made in where the story left off with Peter a total stranger to the people he loves the most. As The Hollywood Reporter noted in their piece about why Spider-Man: Brand New Day beat superhero fatigue, “the story works because it’s character-driven rather than having its characters trying to obtain a magical object”, which is what Sarah wrote in her review last week. I mean, Marvel still tried to shove the Marvel into the movie but at its heart, Brand New Day makes you care about these people, about this hero, and those in his life. Which is mirrored in the way the public cares about Tom and Zendaya in real life.

I wrote last week that my texts with Kathleen are now exclusively just us sending Tomdaya edits back and forth to each other which we both acknowledge is probably inappropriate, TOO parasocial. Like for every five TikToks, we say to each other that this is precisely why the two of them will be disappearing for the rest of the summer and part of the fall, that we are the problem. And then two texts later we’re all, “they are so precious, protect them!” We’re not the only people experiencing this. 

bro i have a crush on zendaya and tom’s relationship 😭😭

— starrlu🍓 (@chidaluuh) August 3, 2026

You know what’s encouraging though? Tom’s dad, Dominic, is on Substack. He wrote a piece this weekend called “Planet Normal”, about the whole Spider-Man: Brand New Day press tour and what it’s been like for the Holland family as one of their own has been promoting these two major movies. And how Tom and Zendaya stay “normal”. These are the day ones, the real day ones, who they are surrounded by, who know them as they want to be known.