The movie, which marks actor Tom Holland’s fourth outing as the web-slinging superhero, depicts Peter Parker fighting crime in a world that has forgotten he ​is Spider-Man.

Zendaya co-stars as MJ, the love of Parker’s life.

Audiences returned for a film that was grounded in ​Parker’s struggles with loneliness and his pursuit of human connection.

“Spider-Man: Brand New Day is fundamentally a movie about ⁠friendship, about the balm of connection in all our lives, and that is resonant to audiences of all ages and all around the ​world,” Tom Rothman, chairman and chief executive of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Motion Picture Group, said.

Data from Rentrak indicates Spider-Man: Brand New Day had the ​highest domestic gross opening since the COVID-19 pandemic and the second-highest of all time, in North America and worldwide, behind the 2019 release of the superhero film Avengers: Endgame.

That film raked in an inflation-adjusted $1.6 billion in global ticket sales, including $467 million in the United States and Canada, in its opening.

Internationally, Spider-Man: Brand New Day grossed $572 ​million in opening weekend ticket sales, with China leading international markets with $121 million in ticket sales, according to the studio.

Spider-Man is one of ​the most popular of Marvel’s comic book characters, with a cinematic appeal that endures even as audiences have shown signs of fatigue with the superhero genre. ‌

The ⁠latest instalment has been well-received, scoring a 90% rating from critics and 98% approval from movie-goers on Rotten Tomatoes.

Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends for Rentrak, said on Friday that the franchise is approaching the $10 billion mark in unadjusted worldwide theatrical box office, which speaks to the character’s appeal.

Greg Durkin, the founder and CEO of the entertainment research firm Enact Insight, said the movie’s central themes of loneliness and isolation, and ​triumphing over drama, resonated especially with ​Gen Z filmgoers.

“There’s a mental ⁠health crisis now with young people in our country — it’s especially acute for young men right now. There’s a friendship crisis,” Durkin said.

“The pandemic created a bunch of shock-wave effects that we haven’t fully documented, ​much less addressed. This movie touches on some really important themes.”

The performance of Spider-Man: Brand New Day fuels ​an already-robust summer ⁠box office, which has been buoyed by such major releases as Toy Story 5 and The Odyssey.

Dergarabedian said on Sunday that the combination of Spider-Man: Brand New Day with another hit, The Odyssey, created the “all-time biggest domestic weekend” in movie theatres.

“There’s no better lead-in to this movie than The Odyssey,” Dergarabedian said.

“Think of how ⁠many people ​around the world were in movie theatres being exposed to trailers marketing for Spider-Man: Brand ​New Day.”

Holland, Zendaya and Jon Bernthal appear in both movies.

The overall domestic box office performance remains below pre-pandemic levels.

Year-to-date receipts are up 10% from last year, but 16% ​below 2019, the year before the pandemic struck, according to Rentrak.