Spider-Man: No Way Home swung its way home to a boffo box opening weekend – a record-shattering on several levels.

Tom Holland’s third movie outing as the web-slinging hero grabbed $253 million and set the record as the biggest December debut weekend ever, not just of the pandemic era. Those figures easily beat the previous record held by Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($247.97 million).

No Way Home’s grosses also set the third biggest weekend bow of all time, following the two Avengers movies, Endgame and Infinity War.

In just one weekend, the 27^th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe claimed the title of the largest-grossing movie of 2021, quickly dethroning Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

The Friday numbers of Spider-Man: No Way Home, which also stars Zendaya and Benedict Cumberbatch, set the biggest December debut of all time. The figures – $121.5 million – were also the second-largest bow of all time.

In IMAX, the Jon Watts-directed Spider-Man movie earned $22 million, making it the biggest moneymaker in the giant screen format for Sony Pictures, which released the film.

No Way Home’s spectacular performance at the turnstiles was all the more remarkable because the Omicron variant seemed to be another deterrent to more moviegoers returning to the cineplexes.

But the tremendous turnout to watch the Marvel tentpole movie also featuring Jacob Batalon, Jon Favreau, Jamie Foxx, Willem Dafoe, Benedict Wong, Tony Revolori, and Marisa Tomei, augurs very well for its immediate future, as the big holiday moviegoing period looms.

Making up the rest of the top ten were, in order, Encanto ($6.5 million), Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story, which dropped from number one last weekend to third ($3.41 million), Ghostbusters: Afterlife ($3.4 million), Guillermo del Toro’s Nightmare Alley, which opened softly ($3 million), House of Gucci ($1.85 million), Eternals ($1.2 million), Clifford the Big Red Dog ($400,000), Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City ($280,000) and Venom: Let There Be Carnage ($220,000).

In the international box office race, Spider-Man: No Way Home also ruled with a global take of $587.2 million, the third-biggest weekend global debut ever. That the MCU film crossed the $500 million global benchmark without the benefit of opening in China impressed the box office analysts.

The $334.2 million overseas bow of the latest Spidey movie came from big numbers in 60 markets, with especially solid performances in Korea, Russia, the United Kingdom, India, Indonesia, Australia, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and Latin America.

No Way Home also set records in offshore IMAX theaters.

Again, the movie’s impressive international figures stunned box office pundits who thought the new curfews and closures of some markets because of the new COVID-19 variant would affect the attendance of overseas moviegoers.

Other Hollywood releases also reached benchmarks in the overseas market: Eternals nears $400 million, Venom: Let There Be Carnage is poised to hit the $500 million mark while House of Gucci is crossing $100 million.

In China, The Battle at Lake Changjin, whose $889 million-plus earnings made it that country’s all-time highest-grossing movie, finally dropped out of the top five.

Crossing the Yalu River took over the top spot with a $3 million debut, which is paltry, compared to The Battle at Lake Changjin’s phenomenal numbers.