For Spider-Man 5 to improve upon its predecessor, it must avoid repeating the biggest storytelling issue in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
It was a historic opening weekend for Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Tom Holland‘s fourth Spider-Man movie opened to $355 million domestically and $927 million worldwide. That shattered the previous franchise record held by Spider-Man: No Way Home, which opened to $260.1 million domestically and $587.2 million worldwide.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day originally had the second-highest domestic opening of all time behind the $357.1 million opening of Avengers: Endgame. However, new reporting now has Brand New Day’s opening at $360 million, moving it past Endgame for the record.
Financially, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a home run for Sony and Marvel. Critically, the movie holds a 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. However, the audience score is much higher at 98%.
Spider-Man will return in the MCU, as mentioned in the post-credits scene of Brand New Day. Though unconfirmed, Spider-Man 5 is as close to a guarantee as humanly possible after the historic opening weekend and high audience scores.
If there is one major criticism about Spider-Man: Brand New Day, it’s the villain or lack thereof. Spider-Man 5 must learn from this mistake and create a more established bad guy.
Why Spider-Man: Brand New Day’s villain problem should shape Spider-Man 5
Who is the villain of Spider-Man: Brand New Day? There isn’t a clear answer, which is a problem. Sadie Sink’s Jean Grey is positioned as the movie’s villain for three-quarters of the movie. Once it’s revealed that Jean is wreaking havoc in hopes of finding her sister, her status as a “true” villain softens.
Tramell Tillman’s Bill Metzger is arguably the villain in the final fourth of the movie. However, there’s not enough time to establish his motivations and explain his rationale for his decisions.
Marvel is starting to confuse hype with surprises. The studio is being too cautious in determining what to reveal in the marketing. Sink playing Jean Grey was the worst-kept secret in Hollywood this year. Is it a surprise anymore if much of the audience knows Sink’s character beforehand?
Look at Thunderbolts* as an example of how marketing might have cost the film millions at the box office. The MCU movie barely touched on the villain, the Void, in the marketing. You could even argue that Valentina Allegra de Fontaine was the real villain. This confusion and lack of direction ultimately aided in a weak box office total of $382.4 million.
The best Spider-Man movies have featured one villain. Spider-Man had Green Goblin, Spider-Man 2 had Doctor Octopus, and Spider-Man: Homecoming had Vulture. There was no confusion about the bad guy. These villains were established in the lead-up to the release, and that didn’t take away from the movie’s success.
Hopefully Marvel pits Peter Parker up against an iconic villain in Spider-Man 5.
