Don’t screw this up, Marvel

EntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportAnalysisCloseAnalysisPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AnalysisDon’t screw this up, MarvelDespite Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s success, the MCU is on shaky ground.by Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreAug 4, 2026, 11:20 PM UTCLinkShareGift Image: Sony / MarvelEntertainmentCloseEntertainmentPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All EntertainmentReportCloseReportPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All ReportAnalysisCloseAnalysisPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All AnalysisDon’t screw this up, MarvelDespite Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s success, the MCU is on shaky ground.by Charles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MooreFilm & TV ReporterPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-MooreAug 4, 2026, 11:20 PM UTCLinkShareGiftCharles Pulliam-MooreCloseCharles Pulliam-MoorePosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Charles Pulliam-Moore is a reporter focusing on film, TV, and pop culture. Before The Verge, he wrote about comic books, labor, race, and more at io9 and Gizmodo for almost five years.In less than a week, Spider-Man: Brand New Day raked in $1 billion worldwide and had the biggest box office opening weekend in Hollywood history. The feature has been a reminder of why Sony is probably never going to give up the Spider-Man film rights, and highlighted how Marvel Studios was smart to strike a deal to bring the character into its own films. But as successful as Brand New Day has been, the larger MCU has been stuck in a confounding slump for the past few years. And while this latest Spider-Man movie was truly excellent, it’s not necessarily a sign that Marvel has figured out how to get things back on track.Though Brand New Day’s current box office is undeniably impressive, it’s not exactly surprising when you take a beat to remember how consistently well Sony and Marvel’s recent live-action Spider-Man projects have performed in the past. Both Spider-Man: Homecoming and No Way Home cleared the $100 million mark during their opening weekends, and it only took Far From Home six days to pull in $185 million. What’s different here is how quickly Brand New Day has shattered records and cemented itself as one of Marvel and Sony’s most fruitful collaborations.The film’s a testament to the fact that people do still have an appetite for big-screen comic book spectacle when the stars align just right. But the things that make this latest Spider-Man project work so well haven’t been present in the Sony-free parts of Marvel’s interconnected universe.Editor’s note: This post contains Spider-Man: Brand New Day spoilers.Even though Jon Watts’ Spider-Man trilogy eventually started mucking around in the multiverse, those films told relatively self-contained stories that were focused on building a grounded world around Tom Holland’s Peter Parker. Taking that approach highlighted the character’s evolution as a solo hero and made it interesting whenever he got roped into situations with the Avengers.Brand New Day feels like director Destin Daniel Cretton and cowriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers striking a strong balance between Sony’s solo Spider-Man movies and Marvel’s larger crossover events. There a