The 38th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the fourth entry in Tom Holland’s take on the web slinger, Spider-Man: Brand New Day swings into multiplexes on July 31st. It is highly unlikely that audiences will forget to check in. Destin Daniel Cretton, who helmed Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings for the studio, directs. Zendaya and Jacob Batalon reprise their roles from the franchise with Mark Ruffalo’s Hulk and Jon Bernthal’s Punisher in the mix. Other cast members include Sadie Sink, Tramell Tillman, and Michael Mando.
It’s been four and a half years since Spider-Man: No Way Home became 2021’s biggest grosser and sixth largest earner of all time domestically. The high profile joining of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spideys with Holland’s (and the villains who populated earlier movies) proved irresistible to audiences. Home kicked off with $260 million (the second best MCU start behind Avengers: Endgame) and $814 million stateside when all was said and done.
Expectations aren’t quite as high for Brand New Day, but they’re not far behind. This MCU adventure should easily post 2026’s top domestic opening currently held by Toy Story 5 ($159 million). In a best case scenario, it could achieve the third most impressive MCU premiere and surpass Avengers: Infinity War‘s $257 million. I’ve got it fourth and believe the floor is $220 million with a ceiling right around No Way Home‘s haul.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day opening weekend prediction: $231 million
In their latest and supposedly final entry in the franchise, Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie choose to extend their mission. Not only does Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning sport the longest running time of the eight features (170 minutes), there’s extra characters to keep up with. You’ll need to extend your knowledge of previous installments for certain plot points and surprise cameos to properly land.
For all the extra padding, the main storyline is not complicated. Kicking off a couple of months after predecessor Dead Reckoning (this was originally Dead Reckoning – Part Two), Cruise’s IMF agent Ethan Hunt and team are still trying to stop The Entity. That’s an AI program whose algorithms equal world destruction, including scenarios where nations turn their nuclear arsenals against one another. Ethan’s Mission buddies include vets Luther (Ving Rhames) and Benji (Simon Pegg) as well as master thief Grace (Hayley Atwell), assassin turned asset Paris (Pom Klementieff), and Theo (Greg Tarzan Davis). That trio were all first seen in Dead Reckoning. Theo is the former partner of Jasper (Shea Whigham) from Dead Reckoning, who doesn’t trust Ethan and is by the side of Henry Czerny’s CIA Director Kittridge.
This whole review could be a rundown of the players in the potential global endgame. Angela Bassett from sixth feature Fallout was Deputy Director of the CIA in that one and is now POTUS. Familiar faces including Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman and Janet McTeer are part of her inner circle. I didn’t anticipate Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire being a part of this write-up, but it suffered from too many characters and so does this. That’s the first time I’d say that about a Mission movie. President Bassett and her band of character acting advisors could have been written out entirely and we’d have a leaner viewing to show for it. On the other hand, Tramell Tillman makes the most of his brief role as a submarine commander.
The main human villain continues to be Entity liaison Gabriel (Esai Morales). He shares a checkered past dating back thirty years with Ethan. That was an underdeveloped plot point in Dead Reckoning and it is here. Gabriel is not one of the memorable antagonists in this series.
These Mission‘s have leaned into the stunt work from #4 Ghost Protocol to present. Cruise and McQuarrie’s dedication to coming up with tremendous action set pieces revolves around an underwater task (like in 2015’s Rogue Nation) and another in the skies (reminiscent of Fallout but with older timey aircrafts). That’s not to say these sequences are derivative of what we’ve witnessed before. They’re both excellent with the aquatic part providing white knuckling claustrophobic thrills and the flight acrobatics offering its own delights.
So while Final Reckoning has its defects, the highlights continue to make it a franchise each is worthy of recommendation (and yes I mean Mission: Impossible2 too). Some callbacks to earlier pics are sharper than others. Without spoiling them, a minor character from a major scene in part 1 coming back is fun. Another character’s family tree connection to a former Ethan associate feels more like a stunt. Speaking of stunts, Cruise continues to wow us with his insistence on keeping it real in a storyline about artificiality attempting domination. This might be the finale. I’ll trust him if he changes his mind.
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