Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Sony
Not that Spider-Man: Brand New Day is scoring badly with critics, but there is somewhat of a divide between their views and fans’ according to the review scores (and now box office) for the film.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day fell out of the top 10 MCU movies ranked by Rotten Tomatoes critic score. The film was hovering near the bottom of that list, but after losing points as dozens of more reviews come in, the movie has lost its place. By contrast, Brand New Day has a 98% Rotten Tomatoes audience score from fans, tied with Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings at No. 1.
With an 89%, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is behind:
Black Panther – 96% Avengers: Endgame – 94% Iron Man – 94% Thor: Ragnarok – 93% Spider-Man: No Way Home – 93% Spider-Man: Homecoming – 92% Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings – 92% Spider-Man: Far From Home – 91% Marvel’s The Avengers – 91% Guardians of the Galaxy – 91% Captain America: Civil War – 90% Captain America: The Winter Soldier – 90%Spider-Man: Brand New Day – 89% (tied with Doctor Strange)
Spider-Man: Brand New Day
Rotten Tomatoes
Again, 89% is not bad, though in the context of the MCU, ranking behind so many other films that many (audiences, clearly) would argue are not better, it’s interesting to see.
We know that the movie’s support among fans, and their high scores, translated into a ridiculously enormous box office, setting the all-time opening weekend record with $360 million domestically, ahead of Avengers: Endgame. This Spider-Man installment will now be the second-fastest movie to cross a billion dollars at the box office when Monday numbers come in.
The divide between critics score and audience score is a strangely wide split. Of the movies ranked above Brand New Day, that film’s 9% gap is larger than any outside of the 96%/79% critic-audience difference for Black Panther. That film came out in a review-bombing era before Rotten Tomatoes verified ticket purchases. This made me curious what some of the skeptical critics had to say:
NPR – “Brand New Day is missing something essential; by spotlighting the fracturing of our core trio, the film makes us wallow in it. There’s so much heartbreak we lose the heart.”Wall Street Journal – “It wallows in angst and stress but has no psychological depth, sticking to bromides like ‘You’re special’ and ‘Be yourself.’ Being somber is a lot easier than being serious.”
I can’t say I agree with any of that, and it seems most audiences would disagree as well. While it stands to reason that Avengers: Doomsday will also make at least a billion dollars at the box office later this year, I would be stunned if audience scores were close to this high, even if Spidey does make a (somewhat expected) cameo. We’ll find out this winter.
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