Could Spider-Man and Odysseus singlehandedly save the theatrical box office? Maybe not completely. But with the release of Sony’s Spider-Man: Brand New Day and Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, they make a strong case for it.

When the latest Spider-Man installment released this past weekend, it made $360 million at the domestic box office and a whopping $932 million globally. Now, in its second week, it earned another $145 million at the domestic box office and crossed the $1 billion mark globally.

The Odyssey has made more than $460 million domestically and also crossed $1 billion worldwide. 

What’s more intriguing is the fact that moviegoers are going out to see these movies in premium formats.

Movie fans are going big this summer

The Odyssey continues to sell out in IMAX, the way Nolan shot it, especially in 70mm, which only occupies 41 screens all over the world and has even been extended due to the high demand. 

Of the massive box office debut that Spider-Man collected in its opening weekend, $31 million of that was from ScreenX and 4DX theaters.

The former is a format that expands the screen onto the left and right sides of the auditorium to create a 270-degree panoramic view for select sequences. The latter combines precision motion with various effects like wind, water, vibration and more.

Last year, grosses from ScreenX and 4DX theaters went up 47% in North America for the first half of 2025, per Comscore data cited by Variety.

Overall, while the theatrical box office hasn’t surpassed pre-pandemic levels, it’s having a strong year so far with domestic revenue at $6.2 billion as of August 2, up 15% from the year before, according to data from media analytics firm Rentrak, and it’s partially driven by premium formats. 

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is the first movie to ever be produced under the “Shot for ScreenX” initiative from CJ 4DPLEX, the South Korean cinema technology company that created the format.

While other movies like Project Hail Mary, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and Toy Story 5 have been digitally expanded or converted to ScreenX in post-production, director Destin Daniel Cretton worked closely with the CJ 4DPLEX team to capture certain sequences in the movie with the help of a dual-camera setup during production.

“Something you cannot get at home”

ScreenX has been around since 2012 and was first launched commercially in South Korea before eventually expanding in the United States in 2017.

Don Savant, CEO of CJ 4DPLEX Americas, said it was the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody that he felt put ScreenX on the map.

“When we could take the audience and bring them in and out of Wembley Stadium to the little apartment where Freddie Mercury’s parents are sitting and then back to Wembley in the next shot, that’s really what helped launch us and made people see what you could do with this format,” Savant told Fast Company.

CJ 4DPLEX also worked with Paramount Pictures and director Joseph Kosinski on the 2022 legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick to feature 58 minutes’ worth of aerial footage and jet sequences in ScreenX—which Savant also attributed to the continued visibility and success of the ScreenX format.

Savant said for Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the company started working with Sony Pictures over a year and a half ago to discuss the strategy.

It was able to be on set with Cretton to add extra cameras to do principal photography. That meant getting wide scopes and additional footage, whether it was shots of New York City or the action sequences.

The result, Savant says, is an experience that moviegoers can’t replicate anywhere else. “This is something you cannot get at home on a device in streaming,” Savant says.

With formats like 4DX and ScreenX, the aim is “to provide something that’s dynamic, breathtaking, and puts you in the center of the director’s story,” Savant adds.

In Spider-Man‘s case, viewers can see the movie “from Spider-Man’s perspective,” he says. “You are behind the mask. You have his Spidey senses and can feel that.” 

Go big or moviegoers will stay home

When it comes to the future of ScreenX, Erik Dane, head of marketing for CJ 4DPLEX, said the company is optimistic about its growth and the rest of the year, especially with the upcoming release of Marvel Studios’ Avengers: Doomsday. 

“We’re not just growing at the box office, we’re growing in locations,” Dane said.

There are currently more than 450 ScreenX theaters all over the world, and the format is continuously expanding. Dane said Cinemark has been one of its strongest partners along with AMC Theatres, which just opened its first 4DX and ScreenX auditoriums in Colorado this summer. 

While CJ 4DPLEX isn’t able to share specifics, the company is already working on a few major titles for next year. Next month, it has Unshatter, Joe Hahn’s documentary and concert film about Linkin Park, which will screen in ScreenX. 

But Savant said at the end of the day, he’s glad moviegoers are coming out to support all the different premium formats along with IMAX and Dolby Cinema. 

“What we’re focusing on is differentiating the cinema experience from the home, and really trying to drive people out of their homes and back into the cinema,” Savant said.