2026‘s biggest movie finishes one franchise’s efforts to flip a film trend that’s existed for almost 100 years, making it even more of a striking film release. While 2025 had some major hits, 2026 has been even more of an exciting year for the world of film and its top-grossing box office potential, with five movies having hit the $1 billion mark already.
More interestingly still, this roster has comprised itself of a notable range of stories, with everything from animated movies to film biopics having reached this major milestone, and provided an assortment of experiences for filmgoers over the course of the year thus far, that build on the vibrant tapestry of all that’s come before them in the film landscape.
2026’s current biggest box office earner is a prime example of this, as the movie builds on its own extensive franchise, as well as decades and decades of history within the genre it’s a part of. Though this naturally means it follows many of the rules present within the genre, it also takes care to subvert expectations and trends within this film category too, including flipping an otherwise pretty closely followed convention of the world of superhero movies on its head.
2026’s Biggest Film Flips One Of The Biggest & Oldest Rules About Superhero Movies
Ever since the first films about superheroes released in the 30s and 40s, there have been many consistents regarding the genre and its on-screen exploits, even over the course of all of the years it has developed and matured.
One of these is that superhero movies generally lean away from having sidekicks, and even more from having sidekicks serve as the central figure in any films, or giving sidekicks solo movies – something cemented further by releases like Batman & Robin garnering divisive receptions, and discouraging films from delving into this direction even more.
However, the MCU timeline has effectively flipped this altogether with its approach to Spider-Man, and the reception to the hero’s movies prove this hasn’t been to the franchise’s detriment. Tom Holland’s Spider-Man spent much of his early story as Iron Man’s sidekick, being introduced into the MCU via Tony Stark bringing him to the famous airport battle in Captain America: Civil War, and then focusing on training his protégé up as a hero from Spider-Man: Homecoming up to Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame.
Despite the MCU’s Spider-Man having effectively been a sidekick of sorts to Iron Man for this chapter of his story – and this garnering some criticism from audiences for reducing Peter Parker down in a sense to Tony Stark’s young hero apprentice – the way in which this has allowed this Spider-Man to have a more steadily building arc has clearly resonated with audiences in no small way.
This is best evidenced via the staggering success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and its $2.4 billion box office result, which marks the hero’s first true steps out on his own while not guided by Iron Man, a Skrull disguised as Nick Fury, or Doctor Strange and Spider-Man’s variant selves – and makes the film in effect the first time the MCU has taken a hero fully from young sidekick protégé to a central movie solo star in quite this way.
Spider-Man: Brand New Day Proves Spider-Man Was The Perfect “First Sidekick” For The MCU
Pulling off sidekicks in superhero movies is all the harder now because of the considerable number of years in which viewers have barely seen this kind of figure used within the live-action superhero films that tend to be the most popular, meaning that any movie that does the opposite does so under a little more scrutiny than it might have faced otherwise.
With this overarching landscape in mind, the MCU positioning Spider-Man as its first real sidekick figure is a move that seems in many ways wise, as it ensured audiences were interested in these first major efforts, since one of the most beloved superheroes of all time was in this role.
With this avenue of the MCU set to become more important than ever before thanks to the likes of the Young Avengers being on the horizon, it’s all the more promising to note how invested people are in the MCU’s Spider-Man story, as the success of Spider-Man: Brand New Day in 2026 bodes well in terms of paving the way for these kinds of stories while also being a major hit in its own right.
