There are moments in cinema history when everything changes. The release of Spider-Man: Brand New Day‘s trailer on March 17 was one of them. Within four days, it had become the first movie trailer in history to cross one billion views, rewriting every standard that the industry had previously used to measure success. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man has changed what’s possible.
The numbers that led to the billion-view milestone were staggering from the outset. In 24 hours, the trailer collected 718.6 million views — beating Deadpool & Wolverine‘s 365 million, No Way Home‘s 355.5 million, and Grand Theft Auto VI‘s 475 million. The last of those comparisons is particularly notable; GTA VI had broken its own record across the gaming and entertainment worlds before Spider-Man came along.
WaveMetrix analytics confirmed a total of 1.1 billion views by Tuesday, the first time in all of trailer history that a single video promotion for a movie had entered ten-figure territory. Entertainment media across every language and market has been running the story since. For the industry at large, the record represents a new ceiling — or perhaps the erasure of one.
The trailer itself made a profound emotional statement. Peter Parker is a man in exile, not from geography but from identity. The people who knew him best — MJ, Ned — have no memory of him. The city he protects doesn’t know his name. Yet he persists, approaching Bruce Banner/Hulk for a partnership that fans hope will give him some tether to the world he once knew.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day hits theatres July 31 with direction from Destin Daniel Cretton and a screenplay by Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers. The ensemble cast features Tom Holland, Zendaya, Sadie Sink, Jacob Batalon, Jon Bernthal, Tramell Tillman, Michael Mando, and Mark Ruffalo. India will receive the film in six languages from launch.