Spider-Man: No Way Home becomes first pandemic-era film to make $1bn, becoming highest-grossing film of 2021

The latest instalment of the Spider-Man franchise, Spider-Man: No Way Home has become the first pandemic-era movie to make more than $1bn (£750m) at the global box office.

The film also took the title of highest-grossing film of 2021 and over the weekend, global box office earnings for the Spider man movie reached $1.05bn

The movie ousted Chinese-made Korean War epic film, The Battle of Lake Changjin, which has grossed more than $905m worldwide.

According to media data analytics firm Comscore, the last movie to gross more than $1bn was 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

No other movie has reached that box office milestone since the pandemic began in 2019.

The new Spider man movie is a co-production between Sony and Disney and hit its milestone less than two weeks after its premier even as the Omicron variant of Covid-19 has spread rapidly around the world, raising fresh concerns about going to cinemas .

As at press time, the film has not yet been released in China, which is currently the world’s biggest cinema market.