The daily business briefing: December 20, 2021

'Spider-Man: No Way Home' debut smashes pandemic-era record, Manchin says he won't vote for spending bill in setback for Biden, and more

Tom Holland
(Image credit: Emma McIntyre/Getty Images)

1. 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' crushes expectations with a $253 million debut

Spider-Man: No Way Home smashed box office expectations over its debut weekend, bringing in $253 million in ticket sales at 4,336 North American theaters. It was by far the biggest opening weekend for any film since the coronavirus pandemic started. In an era when COVID-19 forces studios to release many films for streaming and theaters simultaneously, Tom Rothman, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group chair and CEO, said the Sony comic-book sequel's success reaffirmed "the unmatched cultural impact that exclusive theatrical films can have when they are made and marketed with vision and resolve." The new Spider-Man film is the first movie released during the pandemic to bring in more than $100 million in a weekend.

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Harold Maass, The Week US

Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.