Why Spider-Man: Brand New Day Made Over $2 Billion Without a Strong Villain in Its Marketing

Spider-Man: Brand New Day made over $2 billion at the box office and just became the highest-grossing domestic film ever made. There are a few reasons why. First, Marvel has seriously cut back its output, which has helped make its movies feel like events again.

Audiences absolutely love Tom Holland as Spider-Man

But perhaps more importantly, audiences absolutely love Tom Holland as Spider-Man. When the Avengers came back through the portals at the end of Endgame, Holland got the biggest pop, both in theaters and in the audience reactions online. He is essentially the heir to Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark, who was previously Marvel's biggest star, and I guess still is.

Audiences came for the characters, not the villain

Spider-Man not only has Holland, but it has Zendaya, Jacob Batalon as Ned, and an entire cast of characters audiences love. They love them so much that a film which didn't even feature a strong villain in its marketing, often the main hook for any superhero sequel, still reached these numbers. Audiences just wanted to see these characters again. They didn't even care who Spider-Man was fighting.

Do you think characters matter more than the villain in a superhero sequel?