The Most Extraordinary Fantasy Movie Hit Of All Time Is Now Even More Impressive Than We Realized

Published Aug 27, 2026, 8:00 AM EDT

For example, few could have predicted that Barbie and Oppenheimer would become a collaborative movie success story in 2023 thanks in part to the "Barbenheimer" trend, wherein audiences would watch the two very different movies as a back-to-back feature in one day. In a sense, this is a part of the magic of the movie world, wherein movies can reach the heights of their box office potential by resonating with audiences in a multitude of ways.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the best example of this today, as the 2026 film's current $2B+ box office results were obtained in a stunningly short period of time, speaking volumes about just how much people love the MCU's Peter Parker. That said, the web-swinging hero's success in 2026 with Brand New Day also shines light on 2025's biggest movie from a new perspective in a way that makes the prior movie also seem more impressive yet again, too.

Ne Zha 2's 2025 Box Office Is Even More Impressive With 2026's Spider-Man: Brand New Day To Compare It To

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has cemented itself as one of the biggest MCU box office hits of the franchise's collective history. Brand New Day has currently amassed $2.2 billion, making it 2026's highest-grossing film thus far, and it's still possible for the film to climb even further in its box office total, which is only bested in Marvel's movie roster by Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame currently.

While Brand New Day's reported box office total sits at around $2,219,901,026 (as per Box Office Mojo), the box office total of 2025's Ne Zha 2 is reported to be $2,270,700,370 (also as per Box Office Mojo). If these numbers are correct, Ne Zha 2's box office total is slightly higher, though some reports (such as The Numbers' $2,001,155,094 box office for Ne Zha 2) suggest Brand New Day may have amassed slightly more overall.

Either way, what matters is that Ne Zha 2 has a comparable box office with Spider-Man: Brand New Day itself, which is a firm indicator of just how immensely successful the 2025 film was, given it made, at worst, the same as a 2026 MCU movie that required years if not effectively decades of setup from the biggest movie franchise in history to reach these heights.

Ne Zha 2 & Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Consecutive Box Office Results Are Seriously Promising For The World Of Movies

While it's easy to put Ne Zha 2 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day in a competition of sorts due to their statuses as the biggest movies of their respective years at this point in time, perhaps the more important detail to note is what this means for the wider world of film, given these $2 billion results have come to the cinema for two years running now.

$2 billion box office success stories are not a common affair, so to have two happen in a row is certainly a major feat to say the least. It's also exciting to note these are the first $2 billion movies we've had since 2022 and Avatar: The Way of The Water, and before that 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, meaning the roster of top grossing movies of all time has been reconfigured every few years in this decade thus far.

Given the obvious impact on cinemas that the pandemic had - and the lower box office results many films are still experiencing for a variety of reasons today - it's promising to note that there's still a clear interest in the world of cinema for audiences when their attention is caught sufficiently, such as is the case with Ne Zha 2 and Spider-Man: Brand New Day themselves.