Director Jon Watts helmed all three films in Tom Holland’s Spider-Man trilogy of films set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Aside from the overall positive reception of the films, Watts’ direction and handling of Peter Parker’s integration into the MCU was also praised. However, the films recorded an unprecedented amount of commercial success.
On X (formerly Twitter), a user pointed out that Watts’ Spider-Man trilogy starring Tom Holland as the titular web crawler had a total bo-office gross of nearly $3.9 billion, marking a record for the individual franchises within the MCU. Here is why the box-office numbers of Watts’ MCU movies are commendable and why his record is unlikely to be beaten anytime soon.
Jon Watts Made an MCU Record With Tom Holland’s Spider-Man Trilogy
Jon Watts debuted in the MCU after the success of his independent thriller Cop Car, which led to him directing 2017’s Spider-Man: Homecoming. The film stars Tom Holland in the titular role following his introduction as the web crawler in Captain America: Civil War.
Watts followed up the film with 2019’s Spider-Man: Far From Home and 2021’s Spider-Man: No Way Home. All three Spider-Man films directed by Watts received critical praise and were commercially successful. On X, user @blurayangel pointed out that three films had a combined worldwide box-office gross collection of nearly $3.9 billion.
Jon Watts #SpiderMan box office 💰
• Homecoming ($880M)
• Far From Home ($1.2B)
• No Way Home ($1.9B)
— BLURAYANGEL 🦇 (@blurayangel) February 19, 2024
The first entry made roughly $880 million while the sequel grossed $1.1 billion. Spider-Man: No Way broke all previous records and grossed a whopping $1.922 billion, becoming the highest-grossing Spider-Man movie, surpassing its predecessor You can check out a complete breakdown of the Spider-Man franchise’s box-office collection here.
While the films were hits at the global box office, what is even more impressive is that Watt’s trilogy is the highest-grossing solo superhero franchise within the MCU beating the trilogies of beloved characters such as Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor. Incidentally, Watts is one of only three directors in the MCU to complete a trilogy apart from Peyton Reed of Ant-Man and James Gunn of Guardians of the Galaxy.
Why Jon Watts’ MCU Box Office Record Might Remain Unbroken
Watt’s Spider-Man trilogy is the second highest-grossing individual franchise in the MCU, except for the Avengers movies, which are mostly treated as crossover films. Thus, Watts holds the record for being the highest-grossing director on a solo character-led film in the MCU.
Moreover, Watt’s Spider-Man trilogy dwarfs the collection of the four Thor movies that grossed nearly $2.7 billion at the box office. Similarly, the Captain America trilogy starring Chris Evans and the Iron Man trilogy starring Robert Downey Jr are lagging with $2.23 billion and $2.42 billion collections.
Guardians of the Galaxy comes in second terms of MCU trilogies by grossing a total of $2.48 billion. Interestingly, Watt’s Spider-Man also outdid Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, which reportedly made a total of $2.43 billion at the box office. Hence, Watts’ Spider-Man trilogy is inarguably the best in terms of the commercial performance of a superhero trilogy.
Watts’ films average a $1.31 billion collection per movie, which is the best in the MCU after the Avengers movies. Ryan Coogler’s two Black Panther films with a combined $2.19 billion box-office collection come in third with an average of $1.10 billion per movie. Assuming Coogler directs a third Black Panther movie, it will have to gross close to $1.8 billion to break Watts’ record. Thus, Jon Watts’ box office record might remain unbroken.
Spider-Man: Homecoming and Spider-Man: Far From Home are streaming on Disney+. Spider-Man: No Way Home is available to rent on Amazon Prime Video and other VOD platforms.
