Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. The movie was made by Columbia Pictures, Marvel Studios, and Pascal Pictures, and sold by Sony Pictures Releasing. It is the second Spider-Man film reboot and the 16th film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The director was Jon Watts. The film stars Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man. Other actors include Michael Keaton, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Zendaya, Donald Glover, Jacob Batalon, Laura Harrier, Tony Revolori, Bokeem Woodbine, Tyne Daly, Marisa Tomei, and Robert Downey Jr.. In the story, Peter tries to balance his life at high school with being the hero Spider-Man. He faces the Vulture.

The film was made possible when Marvel Studios and Sony made a deal in February 2015 to share the film rights for Spider-Man. Tom Holland was chosen to play Spider-Man in June 2015, and Jon Watts was hired to direct. Filming happened in Fayette County, Georgia, Atlanta, Los Angeles, New York City, and Berlin. Spider-Man: Homecoming first showed in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 28, 2017, and came out in the United States on July 7. The movie did very well. It made a lot of money and people liked it for its fun tone and focus on Peter's high school life. Two sequels have come out: Spider-Man: Far From Home in 2019 and Spider-Man: No Way Home in 2021. A new trilogy of live-action films will start with Spider-Man: Brand New Day in 2026.

Plot

After the Battle of New York in 2012, Adrian Toomes and his company lost their jobs when the Department of Damage Control, started by Tony Stark and the U.S. government, took over. Angry, Toomes kept some special technology and started making and selling powerful weapons. He made a special flying suit called the Vulture to steal energy pieces.

Eight years later, Peter Parker, who is also Spider-Man, is back at school after helping the Avengers in Germany. Tony Stark tells him he is not ready to be a full-time Avenger. Peter decides to focus more on being Spider-Man. His friend Ned learns that Peter is Spider-Man.

Peter finds some of Toomes’s workers selling weapons to a bad guy named Aaron Davis. Peter tries to stop them but gets caught by Toomes in the Vulture suit. Tony Stark saves him and warns Peter to stay away from these criminals.

Peter and Ned study one of the weapons and take out a special part from it. They follow another worker to Maryland and then go to a big school competition in Washington, D.C.. Peter tries to stop Toomes but gets trapped and misses the competition. He finds out the special part is dangerous and rushes to the Washington Monument to stop it. He saves his friends who were stuck in an elevator.

Peter goes to a school dance called homecoming with his friend Liz. He discovers that Toomes is Liz’s father, and Toomes figures out that Peter is Spider-Man. Toomes tells Peter he plans to steal weapons from a plane.

Peter leaves the dance and fights one of Toomes’s workers. He then goes to Toomes’s hideout and almost gets hurt but escapes. Peter stops the plane and has a big fight with Toomes. In the end, Peter saves Toomes’s life when his suit breaks, and Toomes is arrested by the police. Liz moves away, and Peter decides not to join the Avengers full time yet.

In a scene after the movie ends, another criminal talks to Toomes about knowing Spider-Man’s secret identity, but Toomes says this is not true.

Cast

• Tom Holland as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A 15-year-old who got spider-like powers after a radioactive spider bit him. Holland wanted to show Peter's everyday teen problems and his efforts to help the city.
• Michael Keaton as Adrian Toomes / Vulture: A worker who turned to crime after losing his job. He wears a suit with mechanical wings made from advanced tech.
• Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan: Tony Stark's driver and bodyguard. He helps look after Peter in the film.
• Gwyneth Paltrow as Pepper Potts: Tony Stark's fiancée and the CEO of Stark Industries.
• Zendaya as Michelle: One of Peter's classmates, also called "MJ". She is described as awkward but smart.
• Donald Glover as Aaron Davis: A criminal trying to buy weapons from Toomes. He is the uncle of Miles Morales, who later becomes Spider-Man in the comics.
• Jacob Batalon as Ned: Peter's best friend, who loves gaming.
• Laura Harrier as Liz: A senior, Peter's love interest, and Toomes's daughter.
• Tony Revolori as Flash: Peter's rival and classmate. He is reimagined as a social media bully instead of a physically strong jock.
• Bokeem Woodbine as Herman Schultz / Shocker: An accomplice of Toomes.
• Tyne Daly as Anne Marie Hoag: The head of the U.S. Department of Damage Control.
• Marisa Tomei as May Parker: Peter's aunt.
• Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man: A billionaire who mentors Peter and created the U.S. Department of Damage Control.

Additionally, Kerry Condon and Chris Evans reprise their roles as F.R.I.D.A.Y. and Steve Rogers / Captain America from previous MCU films, respectively. Other actors play various characters in Peter's high school and the local community.

Production

Development

After the November 2014 hacking of Sony's computers, emails between Sony Pictures Entertainment co-chairman Amy Pascal and president Doug Belgrad were released. They stated that Sony wanted Marvel Studios to produce a new trilogy of Spider-Man films while Sony kept "creative control, marketing, and distribution". Talks between Sony and Marvel broke down, and Sony planned to make its own Spider-Man films. But in February 2015, Sony Pictures and Marvel Studios agreed to make a new Spider-Man film. Kevin Feige and Pascal would produce it (through her company Pascal Pictures). The character would first appear in an earlier Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film, later shown to be Captain America: Civil War (2016). Marvel Studios would look for ways to add MCU characters to future Spider-Man films. Sony Pictures would still pay for, share, and control the creative side of these films. Both companies could end the deal at any time, and no money changed hands. However, a small change was made to a 2011 deal that gave Marvel full control of Spider-Man's merchandising rights. In return, Marvel paid Sony $175 million one time and up to $35 million for each future Spider-Man film, instead of getting five percent of the film's revenue. Marvel could lower their $35 million payment if the film made more than $750 million. Marvel still got five percent of the film's gross. Lone Star Funds also helped pay for the film with Sony, covering 25 percent of the $175 million budget, through its LSC Film Corporation deal. Columbia Pictures officially worked as co-producer with Marvel Studios. Sony also paid Marvel Studios an undisclosed producer fee.

Marvel had been trying to add Spider-Man to the Marvel Cinematic Universe since October 2014. They announced their Phase Three films then, with Feige saying, "Marvel doesn't announce anything officially until it's set in stone. So we went forward with that Plan A in October, with the Plan B being, if the deal were to happen with Sony, how it would all shift. We've been thinking about the Spider-Man film as long as we've been thinking about Phase Three." Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach, producers for The Amazing Spider-Man series, would serve as executive producers. Neither director Marc Webb nor actor Andrew Garfield would return for the new film. Sony wanted a younger actor than Garfield to play Spider-Man. Logan Lerman and Dylan O'Brien were top choices. In March 2015, Drew Goddard was being considered to write and direct the film. O'Brien said he had not been asked for the role. Goddard, who worked on a Sony film about the Sinister Six, later said he turned down the new film because he "didn't really have an idea" for it and struggled with the idea of making a new film after working on the Sinister Six film.

The next month, during the promotion of Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Feige said Peter Parker would be about 15 to 16 years old in the film. It would not be an origin story, because "there have been two retellings of that origin in the last thirteen years, so we are going to assume that people know that, and the specifics". Peter's Uncle Ben is mentioned in the film, but not by name. There was talk about including a direct reference to Ben when Peter gets ready for his homecoming by showing that his clothes were Ben's, but the writers decided against it because they felt it moved away from Peter's character arc and made Ben's death feel like a "throwaway line". Later in April, Nat Wolff, Asa Butterfield, Tom Holland, Timothée Chalamet, and Liam James were being considered by Sony and Marvel to play Spider-Man, with Holland and Butterfield as top choices. Joseph Quinn, Chandler Riggs, and Zachary Gordon also tried out for the role.

In May 2015, Jonathan Levine, Ted Melfi, Jason Moore, the writing team of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and Jared Hess were being considered to direct the film. Butterfield, Holland, Judah Lewis, Matt Lintz, Charlie Plummer, and Charlie Rowe tried out for the lead role against Robert Downey Jr., who plays Tony Stark / Iron Man in the MCU, to see if they worked well together. The six were chosen from over 1,500 actors tested in front of Feige, Pascal, and the Russo brothers—the directors of Captain America: Civil War. Lintz would later be cast as Bruno Carrelli in the Marvel Studios Disney+ series Ms. Marvel (2022). By early June 2015, Levine and Melfi were the top choices to direct the film, with Daley and Goldstein and Jon Watts also being considered. Feige and Pascal narrowed the actors to Holland and Rowe, with both testing with Downey again. Holland also tested with Chris Evans, who plays Steve Rogers / Captain America in the MCU and became the favorite. Jon Bernthal also advised Holland to show off his athletic skills during his audition tape. On June 23, Marvel and Sony officially announced that Holland would star as Spider-Man and that Watts would direct the film. The Russos "were pretty vocal about who they wanted for the part", pushing for an actor close to Peter Parker's age to be different from past versions. They also liked Holland for having a dancing and gymnastics background. Watts was able to read the Civil War script, talk with the Russos, and was on set for the filming of Spider-Man's scenes in that film. He could "see what they were doing with it" and give "ideas about this and that", including what Peter's bedroom and wardrobe looked like "so that my movie matches theirs". When joining the MCU and directing the film, Watts said he was excited to explore the "ground level" of the MCU, a world where characters like the Avengers exist but have only been shown in past films at "the Penthouse level of the Marvel world".

Before becoming director, Watts made images of Nick Fury as Peter's mentor in the story in early "mood reels" saying, "I don't know what the situation would be, but that would be a person he'd want to get in trouble with." Feige said the films of John Hughes would be a big influence and that Peter's growth and development would be just as important as his role as Spider-Man. He noted that "at that age, in high school, everything feels like life or death". He also said the film hoped to use one of Spider-Man's villains not yet seen in film, and that filming would start in June 2016. In July 2015, it was reported that Marisa Tomei had been offered the role of May Parker, Peter's aunt. It was also revealed that Daley and Goldstein, after missing out on the director role, had started talks to write the screenplay, and were given three days to show Marvel their idea; both confirmed soon after that they had agreed to write the screenplay. The pair had a different take on the character than past Spider-Man films, listing all the elements seen in those films and trying to avoid using them again. They wanted to focus on the high school parts of the character instead of the "drama and weight of the tragedy that leads to the origin of Spider-Man". They felt this would make him different from other MCU superheroes as well. Daley said the film was about Peter "finding his place" in the MCU, with the writing team wanting the film to focus on him "learning to use his new powers and not being good with them yet, and carrying some real human fears and weaknesses", such as a fear of heights when he has to climb the Washington Monument. Daley noted, "Even in this movie, I don't think you would feel that fear of heights or the dizziness the audience feels in that scene if you show him swinging from skyscrapers at the start of the movie." The writers also wanted to avoid the skyscrapers of Manhattan because of how often they were used in other films, and instead put the character in places such as "the suburbs, on a golf course, the Staten Island Ferry, Coney Island, and even Washington, D.C." One of the first scenes they suggested was "seeing Spider-Man attached to a plane 10,000 feet up in the air, where he had no safety net. ... you're used to the areas he's been in, why not turn it around and make it something new that people haven't seen before?" The pair said that the film took a more grounded, "low-stakes" approach than past films, avoiding having to explain why the Avengers were not helping, since a world-threatening problem would logically need the "big guys".

Marvel encouraged Daley and Goldstein to use their own sense of humor in the script, with Daley saying, "When you're seeing the world through the eyes of a fun, funny kid, you can really use that voice, and not give him the ready-made one-liners that you're used to hearing from Peter Parker." Inspired by their work on sitcoms, the writers also wanted to create "a group of strong characters" around Peter in the film. In October 2015, Watts said he wanted to make the film a coming-of-age story to show Peter's growth, citing Can't Buy Me Love (1987), Say Anything... (1989), and Almost Famous (2000) as some of his favorite films in that style. This was the part of the film that first interested Watts in directing it, as he had already wanted to make a coming-of-age story when he heard that the new Spider-Man would be younger than past versions. Watts re-read the original Spider-Man comics to prepare for the film, and "came to a new understanding" about the character's original popularity, feeling that he gave a new perspective to the comics that already had "a great Marvel Universe ... to give a regular person's view of it". He felt this was also the job of this film since it had to introduce Spider-Man to the already established MCU. Specific comics that Watts mentioned as possible influences were Ultimate Spider-Man (2000–2011) and Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane (2004–2009). In December, Oliver Scholl agreed to be the production designer for the film.

Pre-production

Watts wanted to carefully plan the film, especially its action scenes, as he does with all his films. For Homecoming, Watts worked with a team to "figure out the visual style for the action scenes and ... try things out before" filming began to help Watts practice since he had not worked on big movies before. For the "web-slinging" scenes, Watts wanted to avoid the big "sweeping" camera moves used before and instead "keep it as real as possible. So, whether it was shooting with a drone camera or a helicopter or a cable-cam, or even just handheld, up on a roof chasing after him, I wanted it to feel like we were there with him."

In January 2016, Sony moved the film's release date from July 28, 2017, to July 7, 2017, and said the film would be changed for IMAX 3D in post-production. J. K. Simmons said he wanted to repeat his role as J. Jonah Jameson from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man films. In early March, Zendaya was cast in the film as Michelle, and Tomei was made May Parker. The next month, Feige confirmed that characters from past MCU films would appear, and explained that the deal with Sony does not say which characters can and cannot appear together. He said the sharing between the studios was done with "goodwill" to "have more options as we make a story", and that "the deal was that it is very much a Sony Pictures movie... we are the creative producers. We are the ones choosing the actor, showing him in Civil War, and then working now on the script and soon to be filming." Sony Pictures chairman Tom Rothman added that Sony has final approval, but was leaving the creative side to Marvel. At CinemaCon 2016, Sony announced the title of the film to be Spider-Man: Homecoming, a reference to the common high school tradition homecoming as well as the character "coming home" to Marvel and the MCU. Tony Revolori – who had tried out for Peter Parker – and Laura Harrier joined the cast as classmates of Peter's, and Downey Jr. was shown to be in the film as Stark. Watts said Stark "was always part of" the film's story because of his talks with Peter in Civil War. Downey Jr. was paid $10 million for his part.

Also in April, Michael Keaton began talks to play a villain, but dropped out shortly after because of scheduling issues with the film The Founder (2016). At this point, John Leguizamo was asked to take the role and began talks to do so. Keaton soon came back into talks for the role after a change in schedule for The Founder, which needed Marvel to ask Leguizamo to step away from the role to cast Keaton; Keaton finished the deal in late May. Marvel offered to cast Leguizamo in another role, which he called "small" and turned down. Mark Hamill was interested in playing the film's villain if Keaton said no, but Keaton changed his mind in time. In June, Michael Barbieri was cast as a friend of Peter's, Kenneth Choi was cast as Peter's high school principal, and Logan Marshall-Green was cast as another villain with Keaton's character, while Donald Glover and Martin Starr joined the cast in unknown roles. Watts said he wanted the cast to show Queens as "one of the most diverse places in the world", with Feige adding that "we want everyone to see themselves in every part of our universe. With this cast especially, it really feels like this is what must happen and continue." This is also different from past films, which were "set in a all-white Queens high school". Also, Marvel decided to mostly not include or talk about characters who were in past Spider-Man films, outside of major ones like Peter and May Parker, and Flash Thompson. This included the Daily Bugle, with co-producer Eric Hauserman Carroll saying, "We played with it for a while, but again, we didn't want to go down that road right away, and if we do a Daily Bugle, we want to do it in a way that feels new". This also included the character Mary Jane Watson, but Zendaya's Michelle was later given the initials "MJ" as a nod to that character. Feige said the point of this was "to have fun with references while at the same time having it be different characters that can give a different feeling".

Spider-Man's suit in the film has more tech improvements than past suits, including the logo on the chest being a remote drone, an AI system like Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S., a holographic screen, a parachute, a tracking device for Stark to follow Peter, a heater, an air bag, the ability to light up, and the ability to change reality with the eyepieces. Stark also adds in a "training wheels" setting, to at first limit Peter's access to all of its features. Carroll said Marvel went through the comics and "took all the fun and strange things the suit did" to add to the Homecoming suit. Spider-Man's web-shooters have different settings, first shown at the end of Civil War, which Carroll said let him "change the spray" to different settings like the spinning web, web ball, or bouncing web. He compared this to a DSLR camera.

Filming

Principal photography began on June 20, 2016, at Pinewood Atlanta Studios in Fayette County, Georgia, under the working title Summer of George. Salvatore Totino was the director of photography. Filming also happened in Atlanta, with places including Grady High School, Downtown Atlanta, the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, Piedmont Park, the Georgia World Congress Center, and the West End area. Holland said building New York sets in Atlanta was cheaper than actually filming in New York, a place closely linked with the character, though the production may "end up in New York for one week or two". A copy of the Staten Island Ferry was built in Atlanta, with the ability to open and close in half in 10 to 12 seconds and be filled with 40,000 gallons of water in 8 seconds. More filming also took place at two magnet schools in the Van Nuys and Reseda areas of Los Angeles.

Casting kept going after filming began, with the addition of Isabella Amara, Jorge Lendeborg Jr., Josie Totah, Hannibal Buress, Selenis Leyva, Abraham Attah, Michael Mando, Tyne Daly, Garcelle Beauvais, Tiffany Espensen, and Angourie Rice in unknown roles, with Bokeem Woodbine joining as an added villain. At San Diego Comic-Con in 2016, Marvel confirmed the castings of Keaton, Zendaya, Glover, Harrier, Revolori, Daly, and Woodbine, while showing Zendaya, Harrier, and Revolori's roles as Michelle, Liz Allan, and Flash Thompson, respectively, and announcing the casting of Jacob Batalon as Ned. Lewis Pullman also tried out for Ned. It was also shown that Adrian Toomes / Vulture would be the film's villain, while the writing teams of Watts and Christopher Ford, and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, joined Goldstein and Daley in writing the screenplay, from Goldstein and Daley's story. Eric Pearson, a member of Marvel Studios's writing group who had written the Marvel One-Shot films, did uncredited work on the film as well. Watts liked Goldstein and Daley's drafts as "really fun and funny", and said that they "sort of set the broad lines of the movie", with him and Ford, close friends since childhood, then re-writing the script based on specific ideas that Watts had and things that he wanted to film, which he said was a "big change in structure, building it into the kind of story line we wanted it to be". McKenna and Sommers then joined the film to handle changes to the script during filming, as "it's all a little changing when you get to set. You try things out, and you just need someone to write while you're shooting."

Harrier said that the young actors in the film "always call ourselves The Breakfast Club". Shortly after, Martha Kelly joined the cast in an unknown role. In August, Michael Chernus was cast as Phineas Mason / Tinkerer, while Jona Xiao joined the cast in an unknown role, and Buress said he was playing a gym teacher. By September 2016, Jon Favreau was repeating his role as Happy Hogan from the Iron Man series, and filming ended in Atlanta and moved to New York City. Places in the last city included Astoria, Queens; Sunnyside, Queens; St. George, Staten Island; Manhattan; and Franklin K. Lane High School in Brooklyn. Also, UFC fighter Tyron Woodley said he had been considered for a villain role in the film, but had to turn it down because of a prior promise with Fox Sports. Principal photography ended on October 2, 2016, in New York City, with some more filming later in the month in Berlin, Germany, near the Brandenburg Gate.

Post-production

In November 2016, Feige confirmed that Keaton would play Adrian Toomes / Vulture, while Woodbine was shown to be Herman Schultz / Shocker. In March 2017, Harrier said the film was being re-filmed, and Evans was set to appear as Steve Rogers / Captain America in a training video. Watts was inspired by The President's Fitness Challenge for this, feeling that Captain America would be the clear version of that for the MCU. He then began thinking of other public service announcements (PSA) with Captain America, about "just anything you could think of, we had poor Captain America do it". Watts said that many of the extra PSA videos would be shown on the home's copy of the film. According to Goldstein, more videos with other Avengers were planned at some point. Watts confirmed that the company Stark makes that leads Toomes on his bad path in the film is Damage Control, which Watts liked "just fit with our overall view with the kind of story we wanted to tell" and made many real questions Watts wanted to use "to move the story forward".

The film has many after-credits scenes. The first gives the Vulture a chance at fixing things, showing him save Peter from another bad guy. Watts said this "was a very interesting part in making the story. You couldn't just use the usual way of the bad guy being a killer and hurting a lot of people. He had to be fixable in some way at the end and that he believes everything he says, especially about his family." The second after-credits scene is an extra Captain America PSA, where he talks about the value of waiting—a meta-referential joke at the audience, who have just waited through the film's credits to see the scene. This was a "last-minute idea" for the film. Watts finished work on Homecoming at the start of June 2017, approving the last visual effect pictures. He said that he had never been told that he could not do something by Marvel or Sony, saying, "You think you'll have to fight for every little strange thing you want to do, but I never really met that. I got to do almost everything I wanted." That month, Starr said he was playing the academic decathlon coach at Peter's high school, and Marshall-Green was said to be playing another Shocker.

Visual effects

Visual effects for the film were done by Sony Pictures Imageworks, Industrial Light & Magic, Luma Pictures, Digital Domain, Cantina Creative, Iloura, Trixter, and Method Studios. Executive producer Victoria Alonso first did not want Imageworks, which worked on all past Spider-Man films, to work on Homecoming, to give it a different look than those earlier films. She changed her mind after seeing what she called "great" test pictures from the company. The film's main-after-end title design was made by Perception.

Trixter did over 300 pictures for the film, including the opening scene at Grand Central Terminal, the scene that shows the events of Civil War from Peter's view, the scene where Toomes takes Liz and Peter to the dance, the school fight between Peter and Schultz, and the scene around and inside the Avengers building. They also worked on both Spider-Man suits and the spider tracker. Trixter made extra salvage workers to fill the Grand Central scene, whose clothes and sizes could be changed to make differences. For the fight between Peter and Schultz, Trixter used a all-digital Spider-Man in his home-made suit, which came from Imageworks, with Trixter adding a rigging, muscle, and cloth system to it "to look like the rather loose training suit". They also made the effects for Schultz's gloves and had to change the place from the Atlanta set to Queens, by using a computer school and adding 360 degrees of painted pictures for the far-middle distance things. Trixter got design pictures and basic sizes that were used before for the Avengers building, but ended up re-making it for the way it looks in Homecoming. Models and sizes for Spider-Man's Avengers suit were made by Framestore for use in a future MCU film, with Trixter making the building that it appears in. Trixter VFX supervisor Dominik Zimmerle said the idea was "to have a clean, high tech, showing building for the new suit. It should look clearly 'Stark' made".

Digital Domain worked on the Staten Island Ferry fight, making the computer versions of Spider-Man, the Vulture suit, Iron Man, and Spider-Man's drone. Digital Domain was able to LIDAR an real Staten Island Ferry, as well as the version made on set, to help with making their computer version. Lou Pecora, visual effects boss at Digital Domain, called that scene "hard" because "the way they were shot, it was lit to be a certain time of day, and later it was decided to change that time of day". Sony Pictures Imageworks made much of the third part of the film when Peter meets Toomes on the plane and beach in his home-made suit, and Toomes is in an updated Vulture suit. Some parts of Vulture's first suit were shared with Imageworks, but the rest were made by them "based on a model". For the plane's hiding ability, Imageworks was inspired by Adaptiv IR Camouflage tank hiding system by BAE Systems, which "uses a set of titles to hide against infrared". For their web design, which was based on the one made for Civil War, Digital Domain looked at polar bear hair because of its clear look. Imageworks also looked at the Civil War webs, as well as to those they had made for past Spider-Man films, in which "the web[s] had [...] tiny barbs that helped in holding on to things". For this film, they "reduced the barbs" to match more closely with the other web designs made for this film. Method Studios worked on the Washington Monument scene. Iron Man's suit in the film, the Mark XLVII, is a changed color version of the MK XLVI suit shown in Civil War; this was done because Sony did not have the money to make a new Iron Man suit. Feige wanted the color design to match the Ultimate Iron Man suit from the comics.

Music

Michael Giacchino, who made the music for Doctor Strange, was chosen to create the music for Spider-Man: Homecoming. Recording began on April 11, 2017. The music includes a theme from the 1960s Spider-Man cartoon show. The soundtrack was released by Sony Masterworks on July 7, 2017.

Marketing

The filmmakers and actors showed clips and trailers from the movie at big events like San Diego Comic-Con and other movie conventions. The first trailer was shown on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on December 8, 2016, and it became very popular. Fans and critics thought these trailers looked promising and said the movie might be the best Spider-Man film yet. Posters and ads were also released. The movie had many partners for promotions, including tech companies, food brands, and game makers.

Release

Theatrical

Spider-Man: Homecoming first showed at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles on June 28, 2017. It started showing in the United Kingdom on July 5 and then in many other countries on July 6. The movie came out in the United States on July 7, showing in 4,348 theaters, including special 3D versions. It was supposed to come out a bit later, on July 28, but it came out early. This movie is part of Phase Three of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

In March 2024, Sony announced that all of their Spider-Man movies would show in theaters again to celebrate Columbia Pictures's 100th anniversary. Spider-Man: Homecoming showed again on May 20, 2024.

Home media

Spider-Man: Homecoming could be watched at home starting September 26, 2017, and was also sold on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D, Ultra HD Blu-ray, and DVD on October 17, 2017. These versions had extra videos about making the movie, scenes that were cut out, and funny mistakes.

In April 2021, Sony made a deal with Disney so people could watch older Spider-Man movies and Marvel content on Disney+ and Hulu after they were done showing on Netflix. The movie was already on Starz and FX. People in the United Kingdom and Australia could watch it on Disney+ starting June 17, 2022, and people in the United States could watch it starting May 12, 2023.

Reception

Box office

Spider-Man: Homecoming made $334.9 million in the United States and Canada, and $546 million in other countries. In total, it made $880.9 million worldwide. It was the second-biggest IMAX opening for a Sony film with $18 million. By September 24, 2017, the film had earned $874.4 million worldwide. It was the highest-grossing superhero film of 2017 and the sixth-largest film based on a Marvel character. The film’s net profit was $200.1 million.

The film earned $50.9 million on its opening day in the United States and Canada. Its opening weekend total was $117 million, the top film for that weekend. It was the second-highest opening for both a Spider-Man film and a Sony film, after Spider-Man 3. In its second weekend, the film earned $44.2 million, falling to second place behind War for the Planet of the Apes. Outside the United States and Canada, Spider-Man: Homecoming earned $140.5 million in its opening weekend from 56 markets, becoming number one in 50 of them. South Korea had the highest Wednesday opening day gross, contributing to a $25.4 million five-day opening in the country. Brazil had the largest July opening day of all time, with $2 million.

Critical response

The film received positive reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it had an approval rating of 92%, with an average score of 7.6/10, based on 400 reviews. Metacritic gave the film a score of 73 out of 100, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. Audiences gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Reviewers liked the film for its light tone, younger portrayal of Peter, and Michael Keaton’s performance. Some critics felt the film was unique and refreshing, especially for focusing on Peter’s school life. Others appreciated the film’s focus on making Peter Parker a realistically youthful and grounded character. However, some critics pointed out that the film had superhero genre clichés and underwritten female characters.

Accolades

Sequels

Main articles: Spider-Man: Far From Home and Spider-Man: No Way Home

Further information: List of Marvel Cinematic Universe films

A sequel called Spider-Man: Far From Home came out in July 2019. Jon Watts directed it, and Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers wrote it. Tom Holland, Jon Favreau, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, and Jacob Batalon all returned, and Jake Gyllenhaal joined as Mysterio. Samuel L. Jackson and Cobie Smulders also returned as Nick Fury and Maria Hill.

Another film, Spider-Man: No Way Home, was announced in September 2019. Jon Watts directed it, with the same writers. Tom Holland, Zendaya, Jon Favreau, Marisa Tomei, Jacob Batalon, and Tony Revolori returned. Benedict Cumberbatch and Benedict Wong also returned as Doctor Strange and Wong. Some actors from earlier Spider-Man movies came back too.

In November 2021, it was announced that Sony and Marvel Studios planned to make more Spider-Man movies with Tom Holland.