The Spider-Man: Brand New Day leak made a very public mess on X, where The Verge reported that a bootleg copy stayed online for more than seven hours before it was removed. During that window, the upload reached more than 5.9 million accounts and drew more than 143,000 likes.
The takedown did not end the problem cleanly. The Verge reported that other accounts reposted the film, though those copies did not remain up for long. Disney now appears to be moving quickly with takedown requests, according to The Verge. That is the usual whack-a-mole part of a major movie leak: one file disappears, another account tries its luck, and rights holders chase copies through platform systems that were not exactly designed for quiet weekends.
The leak, at least based on the early numbers reported so far, has not stopped the movie from selling tickets at record pace. Variety reported that Spider-Man: Brand New Day made $72 million from previews this week. The previous preview record belonged to Avengers: Endgame, which took in $60 million during previews in 2019.
Will the Spider-Man: Brand New Day leak hurt the box office?
The available box office data does not show that yet. Deadline reported that, after previews and opening day, Brand New Day had already earned $168 million, putting it ahead of Endgame at the same point, when that film had $157.4 million.
That comparison matters because Endgame remains the benchmark for a modern theatrical opening. It went on to make more than $1.2 billion worldwide in its opening weekend, including more than $350 million in the United States. Those are not normal movie numbers; they are the kind of numbers studios use to recalibrate expectations and make every other executive’s spreadsheet look sad.
Spider-Man: No Way Home is also part of the target range. The film currently sits at No. 2 on the all-time U.S. opening weekend chart with $260 million. That gives Brand New Day two obvious comparisons: the Spider-Man franchise’s own modern peak and the Marvel opening weekend record held by Endgame.
Sony is not publicly projecting an all-time record, at least not in the figures reported by Deadline. The studio is estimating a $325 million haul for the latest Spider-Man film. That would be below Endgame’s U.S. opening weekend total but still far above the scale most theatrical releases can realistically touch.
The leak is still bad news for Disney and Sony because it put a full bootleg in front of millions of X users before the enforcement machinery caught up. The early ticket sales, though, suggest the audience for a major Spider-Man release is not treating a low-friction pirate copy as a substitute for the theatrical event, at least during the opening rush.
This story draws on original reporting from The Verge.
