Peter Parker might be accidentally responsible for opening up the Marvel multiverse on film, but it looks like his upcoming misadventures in Spider-Man: No Way Home may be advantageous for Marvel after all. The company has announced that the upcoming film will be the first of Marvel’s “Phase Four” films to open in China, the first film of the phase to pass the country’s censorship and screening approval processes.
The announcement comes on the heels of the film’s first official poster, ramping up excitement for the third MCU Spider-Man film, while also making up for the fact that Eternals, which debuted this past weekend to a $161.7 million opening at the global box office, has yet to set a release date in the world’s largest film market. (Variety reports that the film has been blocked due to since-deleted comments from director Chloé Zhao to American film press, but no specifics have been confirmed.)
While No Way Home will be only the fourth film in Phase Four, Marvel’s inability to bring its other films — Black Widow, Eternals, and Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings — to their largest market has been a significant blow, with all three films failing to pass censorship screenings. Even non-MCU properties have failed to make it to the Chinese market, with Sony’s Venom: Let There Be Carnage showing no sign of premiering in China despite premiering in American theaters over a month ago.
But No Way Home should still perform profitably for Marvel, following up on the success of Spider-Man: Far From Home, which grossed $199 million in China when it premiered in 2019. No date has been confirmed for its Chinese release, but Variety reports that the film will debut exclusively in theaters, rather than arriving simultaneously on Disney+ or another similar streaming service.
Spider-Man: No Way Home, directed by Jon Watts and starring Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Marisa Tomei, premieres in American theaters on December 17.