Can Spider-Man save Hollywood with ‘No Go Home’?

Great powers bring great responsibilities, and the industry is pinning its hopes on the new Spider-Man movie to revive Hollywood and skyrocket the box office, hit hard by the pandemic.

Forecasts are encouraging for “Spider-Man: No Return Home,” which hits theaters this week, with estimates that it could gross $150 million or more on its opening weekend in the United States and Canada alone.

Despite movie theaters’ gradual recovery this year, this would clearly be the biggest box office hit for a Hollywood premiere since “Star Wars: The Skywalker Rise” in December 2019, before the pandemic.

Since then, no movie has surpassed $100 million in its premiere.

“All year the industry has taken one step forward and then two steps back,” said Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

“The performance of ‘Spider-Man’ is really important,” he added.

“Spider-Man: No Homecoming” is the third featuring British star Tom Holland in the role of the superhero, previously played by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

The original “Spider-Man” film, starring Maguire in 2002, was the first film in motion picture history to gross more than $100 million in its opening weekend.

On the red carpet for the world premiere in Los Angeles last Monday, Holland listed the merits of the last film and highlighted among them the “nostalgia” and “the celebration of cinema”.

The story picks up where “Away From Home” left off, the 2019 franchise in which villain Mysterio publicly unmasks Peter Parker.

Parker struggles to regain his anonymity, with the help of another popular Marvel character, Doctor Strange.

“Batman, Superman and X-Men are the only series that have gone this far, this is the ninth episode,” said analyst David A. Gross, head of Franchise Entertainment Research.

“It’s incredibly popular. So we have a great weekend ahead of us,” he said.