Israelis showed up for Spider-Man in a big way this past weekend, sending the Tom Holland superhero film to the largest opening in Israeli box office history. Forum Films, the distributor handling Marvel and Disney releases in Israel, announced Monday that the film sold more than 250,000 tickets across the country in its opening weekend, dethroning Avengers: Endgame's long-held record.
The numbers are particularly striking given that Israel's film industry is still recovering from the effects of war and economic pressures that have kept audiences away from cinemas over the past year. Yet somehow, a story about a teenager bitten by a radioactive spider proved irresistible.
Globally, the film performed even more dramatically. Spider-Man: New Day grossed $927 million worldwide in its opening weekend alone—a figure that more than doubled Sony's original projections. While Avengers: Endgame still holds the all-time opening weekend record at $1.22 billion, Marvel's new Spider-Man release is tracking to become the highest-grossing film of 2026, a title currently held by Toy Story 5 with $1.065 billion.
Why Does Spider-Man Still Matter?
The character's durability as a cultural force is rooted in something seemingly simple: Spider-Man was, from the beginning, different. When Stan Lee pitched a teenage superhero, a shy, anxious kid named Peter Parker who got powers from a radioactive spider, Marvel executives were skeptical. Nobody wanted to read about a high school student with real problems. Surely audiences wanted powerful adult superheroes, not awkward teens.
Stan Lee insisted anyway. That decision remade the comic book industry.
What made Peter Parker revolutionary wasn't just his youth, it was that he remained fundamentally human. He worried about money, about girls, about disappointing the people he loved. He had to balance heroism with homework. That fundamental tension between the ordinary and the extraordinary has carried Spider-Man through decades of cultural shifts, from comic books to film franchises spanning three different actors.
The current film clearly taps into that enduring appeal. Tom Holland's portrayal of Parker maintains that core vulnerability while delivering the spectacle modern audiences expect. Zendaya's presence as MJ doesn't hurt either—she created a minor cultural moment at the film's premiere by wearing jewelry designed by Israeli designer Keren Wolf, a choice that registered with local audiences.
The film also benefited from an unusual promotional moment when Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi appeared in a viral promo video using a fictional "Spidey Tracker" app to locate the superhero. The video, which generated millions of views, became a social media phenomenon and probably didn't hurt the film's global visibility.
Marvel's Comeback Moment
The film's success arrives as Marvel attempts to recover from years of mixed critical reception and disappointing box office returns. After a stretch where the studio struggled to generate the kind of excitement it once commanded, Spider-Man: New Day suggests that audiences will still turn out in force for a quality story with talented actors and serious production values.
For Israeli audiences specifically, the record-breaking numbers signal something else: even in difficult times, cinema remains a draw. A story about a kid learning to be a hero, it turns out, transcends whatever else is happening in the world.
