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Spider-Man: Brand New Day has arrived, and our Spidey-senses are tingling! No, it’s not because of a terrible studio rom-com. We’re returning to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) in this episode of The Cinematic Schematic to dive deep into the webhead’s latest big-screen outing.
Tom Holland’s fourth mainline Spider-Man film has been showered with acclaim and is breaking box-office records. Outside of receiving the biggest opening weekend in U.S. box office history ($360m, beating Avengers: Endgame’s $357.1m), it also became the highest-grossing film of the year in under 10 days.
Creatively, this is the first of Holland’s films with Zendaya to place the story’s emphasis squarely on Peter Parker’s struggle to balance his heroics, family, and personal health. We already provided our spoiler-free thoughts. The film gets a lot right, but often gets distracted by other popular characters in the MCU.
In today’s conversation, we’re opening with a look at the complicated state of the MCU. We’ll then take a lengthy deep dive into Spider-Man: Brand New Day, including our rankings for the top 5 Spider-Man movies.
The State of the MCU in 2026
We’re up to 38 movies and somewhere in the ballpark of 18 TV series set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which began with Robert Downey Jr.’s Iron Man. We’re up to Phase VI (starting with 2025’s Fantastic Four). The 38 films have grossed somewhere in the ballpark of $ 33 B.
More recently (largely post-Endgame in 2019), there have been more box-office underperformers (Eternals, The Marvels, Captain America: Brave New World, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) or stalled projects (Blade, Armor Wars), signaling waning public interest and/or creative fatigue.
The “Street Level” Film Reviewer Panel
To dissect all matters of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, hosts Caleb Masters and Laron Chapman are joined by the co-founder of the Oklahoma Film Society, Alex Palmer.
Left: Laron Chapman (top) and Alex Palmer (bottom)
Right: Caleb Masters
Special Guest
Alex Palmer
Co-Founder of the Oklahoma Film Society, Film Producer
Follow the Oklahoma Film Society on Facebook and Instagram
About Spider-Man: Brand New Day
A forgotten Peter Parker lives alone as a full-time Spider-Man until mounting pressure triggers a dangerous change and a powerful new enemy emerges.
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