Zendaya, Tom Holland rule box office with Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey’s dream run

All hail the king and queen of the box office renaissance, Tom Holland and Zendaya, who are riding high with the successes of Spider-Man: Brand New Day and The Odyssey.

Also along for the journey: Jon Bernthal, who co-stars in both those films with Tomdaya, kind of like a volatile uncle.

It’s a big win for Hollywood’s most endearing – and most of the moment – real-life screen couple whose recent secret marriage has also made them hot property on the red carpet. You want those two kids to win, and this box office spike will only cement their top echelon status.

Between Spider-Man and The Odyssey, Tomdaya’s two films have collected $US2.76 billion over the past month. That’s huge.

Spider-Man is now sitting pretty on $1.66 billion after 11 days in release, including $US1 billion from international markets outside of the US and Canada.

In Australia, the film made another $17.1 million this past weekend, and now has a total of $55.6 million in ticket sales. That makes it the 15th highest grossing movie of all time in this market, just behind A Minecraft Movie, but it is guaranteed to rise before the end of its cinema run.

In North America, Spider-Man earned another $US145 million, which is the third highest second weekend of all time, barely trailing Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($US149 million) Avengers: Endgame ($US147 million).

Worldwide, it reached $US1 billion in six days, and is now close to predecessor, Spider-Man: No Way Home’s total theatrical earnings of $US1.92 billion.

Barring any catastrophic (and shocking) declines, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is widely expected to run past $US2 billion, which only seven other films have done historically, not adjusted for inflation.

The Odyssey also became director Christopher Nolan’s highest grossing film ever, also not adjusted for inflation, at $1.10 billion, surpassing the second of his Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, which collected $US1.08 billion.

Nolan’s films have now collectively grossed more than $US7 billion. More than any other working director right now, Nolan is the superstar filmmaker whose involvement on any project is enough to pique audience interest regardless of his cast or the story.

So, as much as Holland and Zendaya is the common denominator across the Spider-Man and The Odyssey movies, their combined power is still not that of Nolan. They are the beneficiaries of his decision to cast them – Holland as Odysseus’s son Telemachus, arguably the third most prominent character in the film, and Zendaya in a smaller role as Athena.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a much bigger showcase for Holland, and to a lesser extent, Zendaya, but even then, the Spider-Man brand and legacy is the bigger drawcard than the names above the marquee.

But they are not without impact. The two of them on the press tours for The Odyssey and Spider-Man have been a plus for the films, and together they are stronger than apart.

The two are notoriously private, offering few glimpses into their personal lives, but they have laid little bread crumbs while promoting The Odyssey and Spider-Man that gives the impression of sharing intimacies with the wider world.

They have posed together on red carpets with public displays of affection, while dishing up comments such as Holland calling Zendaya his “lifeline” in an interview. But there’s never anything substantive.

They’re very good at giving you a little while holding everything else back – and it’s actually that guarding of their privacy that earns them respect. It’s a careful calibration but it comes off as authentic, and so far, they’re nailing it.

We’ve seen the public, especially social media, turn on celebrity couples when they’re too openly gushy. Sometimes it’s dismissed as a “showmance”, a pairing that’s played up for publicity purposes, and other times, everyone is begging for them to take it behind close doors.

There’s a fine line between cute and cringe, and Tomdaya has always managed to stay on the correct side of it. It helps that they are individually also well-liked.

Zendaya, with the help of stylist Law Roach, is known for her killer red carpet looks and theme dressing, and also picking interesting projects. She balances the bigger franchises (Spider-Man, Dune) with original films such as Challengers and The Drama.

While Holland has had less of an ideal creative run outside of Spider-Man with stinkers such as Chaos Walking and Uncharted (even he has admitted that some of his films have not been great), he seems like a genuinely nice British guy who likes to play golf with his brothers.

While they can’t take the credit for the dream box office performance of their two films, it certainly doesn’t hurt their future prospects.

The idea that any one actor is the highest-grossing star based on the combined ticket sales of their movies is a dubious metric anyway.

Zoe Saldana, who holds that title in terms of all time, just ahead of Scarlett Johansson, has $US15.47 billion in takings. But she earned that honour by being part of the ensembles of the Guardians of the Galaxy/Avengers, Avatar and Star Trek movies.

In one of those roles, as alien Gamora in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, she’s covered in green make-up, while in the Avatar films, she’s a blue CGI character.

All respect to Saldana, who has an Oscar for Emilia Perez, but she is not the primary reason those films were so widely seen. The franchises’ brands were bigger than Saldana as an actor.