Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a return to form for the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Enjoying that return depends entirely on if you’ve seen Marvel’s recent fare. Thankfully for Disney, most audiences haven’t.
If they had, they’d realize that this movie is a tired copy-and-paste job. So why has it made more than $2.4 billion, while other recent Marvel projects bomb?
Fans would argue that it’s the film’s quality. To an extent, they’re right. Compared to the flaccid green-screen bores of the recent Spider-Man films, Brand New Day is lean and muscular.
The fight scenes feel weighty and powerful. New York City is shot with authentic grit. Spider-Man’s costume bends and folds like actual fabric. Director Destin Daniel Cretton has avoided computer-generated imagery whenever possible, and the result is a movie shining with handcrafted honesty.
That shine doesn’t extend to the film’s story. Dastardly yet misunderstood Jean Grey, played by Sadie Sink, is attacking the city. To stop her, Peter Parker, better known as Spider-Man—portrayed by Tom Holland, whose performance sports a post-Odyssey glow—must embark on a journey to stop her.
Along the way, he encounters various superheroes, including the gruff Jon Bernthal as Punisher and the always-wonderful Mark Ruffalo as Hulk. By the end, Parker gains new abilities and learns a bit about himself in the process.
As an excuse to place Spider-Man in front of Marvel’s players and some rousing set pieces, including a climactic battle with a ninja clan, the plot works.
But this tale, where the hero fights a misunderstood villain and grows as a result, has been told ad nauseam across the majority of the MCU—it’s grown stale.
Brand New Day doesn’t use this plot with much finesse, either. Its memorable characters feel torn across its narrative like the writers are children playing with toys.
Regardless, the movie’s commercial prospects have stood strong. As of Sept. 10, Brand New Day is the third-highest-grossing film in history. Meanwhile, other recent MCU projects flop.
Thunderbolts*, which Variety claims had a break-even point of $425 million, grossed just under $383 million in May of 2025. The Fantastic Four: First Steps, released a month later, grossed only $138 million more.
Something’s clearly attracting theatergoers to Brand New Day that other MCU films lack.
It’s not the movie’s merits. Similar creative teams worked on Spider-Man and the aforementioned duds, including a head costume designer and visual effects supervisors that received praise for First Steps’ “preppy, 60s style… design choices,” from The UK Observer.
To many, the answer is clear—it’s the wall-crawler himself.
“Spider-Man will always endure,” describes The Atlantic in an article about Brand New Day’s financial successes. The webhead’s moneymaking status is a common belief among comic-book diehards and the general public. Peter Parker’s real superpower must be printing cash.
But assuming Spider-Man’s juggernaut status will last forever is foolish. After all, similar things were said of another powerhouse: Batman.
In 1989, Tim Burton’s Batman was released to vast critical and commercial success. Described as “the first real modern blockbuster” by The San Francisco Chronicle, the film’s cultural triumph even coined a term: ”Batmania.”
Warner Bros. greenlit a number of sequels, which achieved similar financial success, especially Batman Forever, released in 1995 to waning critical reactions. That waning reached a turning point with 1997’s infamous Batman & Robin. It’s been described as one of the worst movies ever made.
Despite replicating the camp aesthetic and narrative of Forever, the movie bombed. Audiences grew tired of Batman, and it took nearly a decade and a creative overhaul by Christopher Nolan for the Caped Crusader to return to his former glory.
Brand New Day is far from being the worst movie ever made. But relying on Spider-Man’s brand recognition to bring in theatergoers is ridiculous. Audiences aren’t stupid. If the movie stinks, they’ll skip it.
And unfortunately, Spider-Man is dangerously close to stinking.
