The daily business briefing: December 27, 2021

Spider-Man: No Way Home becomes 1st film to bring in $1 billion in pandemic era, holiday spending jumped despite COVID surge, and more

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

1. 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' box office haul surpasses $1 billion

Spider-Man: No Way Home continued its strong run at the box office over the weekend, becoming the first film in the pandemic era to top $1 billion in global ticket sales. The feat by the Sony-Disney co-production was all the more impressive because it came as the Omicron coronavirus variant is making many people more cautious about going to theaters instead of streaming movies at home. "Spider-Man: No Way Home's sprint to $1 billion within the context of this still pandemically challenged marketplace is nothing short of astonishing," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore. "It demonstrates the power of a great movie to draw fans around the world to enjoy the shared and communal experience that only the movie theater can provide."

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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.