Spider-Man: Brand New Day sets Middle East box office record
“Spider-Man: Brand New Day” has posted the biggest opening weekend in Middle East box office history, taking $18.4 million across four days from July 30 to Aug. 2, Empire Entertainment reported. The Tom Holland sequel led the region, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia as its top markets.
Empire Entertainment, Sony Pictures’ exclusive theatrical distributor across the Middle East, confirmed the haul that vaulted the film past every prior regional opening on record. For more streaming and theatrical alerts, see our Streaming & TV Alerts hub.
According to Variety, the UAE delivered $7.4 million and Saudi Arabia $5.4 million, making them the film’s two biggest markets in the territory.
Key Takeaways
- “Spider-Man: Brand New Day” logged a Middle East-record $18.4 million over July 30–Aug. 2.
- The UAE ($7.4M) and Saudi Arabia ($5.4M) led the regional take.
- Empire Entertainment called it the company’s tenth Spider-Man release in the Middle East.
- Empire president Mario Haddad Jr. said strong results show audiences choosing cinemas for entertainment.
- MENA theatrical business has stayed buoyant this year despite earlier regional conflict disruptions.
What did Brand New Day earn across the Middle East?
Empire pegged the four-day total at $18.4 million from Middle East theaters. That figure covers the July 30 to Aug. 2 window and stands as the region’s biggest opening of all time, the distributor said.
By comparison, “The Odyssey” recently opened at $2.8 million in the UAE and $2.6 million in Saudi Arabia, per Box Office Mojo figures cited by Variety—underscoring how far ahead the Spider-Man sequel landed in those same markets.
Why does this Middle East opening matter?
Empire said the Tom Holland-led sequel also scored highly with audiences in Egypt, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman. The distributor framed the run as proof of the Middle East’s growing weight as a theatrical market for major blockbusters.
Variety noted that Middle East and North Africa (MENA) box office has stayed buoyant this year despite disruptions tied to the U.S.-Israel-Iran regional conflict at the outset of that period. The record opening adds fresh evidence that tentpole demand remains strong across key Gulf and North African territories.
How is Empire Entertainment reading the record?
“When a film performs this strongly, it tells us something crucial: audiences across the region are increasingly choosing cinema as their destination for entertainment,” Empire Entertainment president Mario Haddad Jr. said.
The milestone is also the tenth Spider-Man title Empire has distributed across the Middle East. Haddad Jr. called the result a testament to the franchise’s enduring pull across generations and a precedent for how the company approaches distribution going forward.