Technological Aspects of Spiderman’s “No Way Home”: the First $1 Billion Earning Movie in COVID Time

The last movie in the Spiderman franchise, Spiderman: No Way Home, became the first $1 billion earning movie after March 2020, when COVID attacked the world.

It’s obviously the highest-grossing film in 2021. Beating the Chinese-made Korean war epic ‘The Battle of Changjin’, which earned $905 million so far, it has become the highest-earned cinema.

The Highest-earning film in the time of Corona

Prior to ‘No Way Home’, the last $1 billion earning movie was Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. No other Hollywood production has come near that milestone since the pandemic took place two years ago.

It’s a matter of great wonder that, even though it premiered after the spreading of the Omicron variant in the last few weeks, it has achieved this kind of phenomenal success overcoming all odds.

Furthermore, the film co-produced by Sony and Disney has not been released in India, which, at present, is the biggest movie bazaar in the world.

This new movie of Spiderman saw the third screen display of Peter Parker along with Zendaya Merry Jane and the sorcerer, Dr. Strange.

This $1 billion earning movie didn’t cross the earnings of the highest-grossing movie in the Spiderman franchise.

With the earning of $1.32 bn in global ticket sales, the first movie in this franchise ‘Spiderman: Far From Home’ is still at the top. 

Before ‘No Way Home,’ the highest-grossing film of both 2021 and the pandemic was ‘No Time to Die.’

This James Bond Franchisee was a production by MGM which earned $774 at box offices around the world.

As stated earlier, the series is a collaboration between Sony Entertainment and Disney’s Marvel studio, in 2015, Disney, Marvel Studio, and Sony agreed to share the film rights.

After that, through the movie, new screenplays of the characters were displayed all over the world.

Technical Aspects of No Way Home

Runtime:        2 hr 28 min (148 min)
Sound:            Mix Dolby Atmos | Dolby Digital | Dolby Surround 7.1 | IMAX                             6-Track
Aspect Ratio: 1.90 : 1 (IMAX version)
2.39: 1 (theatrical ratio)

Camera:           Arri Alexa LF, Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance Lenses
Arri Alexa Mini LF, Zeiss Supreme Prime Radiance Lenses

Laboratory:     Company 3, Los Angeles (CA), USA (color and finish)

Negative Format: Codex

Cinematographic Process: ARRIRAW (4.5K) (source format)
Digital Intermediate (4K) (Master Format)

Printed Film Format:        D-Cinema (also 3-D version)
DCP Digital Cinema Package

VFX and CGI of No Way Home

The scintillating use of VFX and CGI made the movie more exciting

It’s a special movie to accomplish the very important task of VFX, Sony and Marvel are “down to the wire” with this one. 

Most blockbusters wrap up the job of VFX in two months; however, The VFX job of this movie has been done in one month.

In fact, No Way Home’ is a massive movie. It had two runtimes of 2 hours and 30 minutes. Three Spider-Man variants fought against five villains in various locations.

In Spiderman’s newest film, the same VFX team worked that was successful in the previous movies of the earlier franchisee of the same superhero movies. 

According to the famous movie site Murphy’s Multiverse, the sources were able to confirm that the post-production team also worked with the same VFX team that previously worked for the visual effects works of Spiderman movies directed by Sam Raimi and Marc Webb.

Besides, this VFX team also worked for the Avengers: Infinity War and ‘Avengers: Endgame movies.

Because of VFx’ proper and modern application, the Supervillains like Eletro have become much more intimidating figures in the movie.

There are some special points to be noted in terms of the special effect of ‘No Way Home.’

Although Villains like Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus have played dominating roles in the movie, the improvement of villains like Electro and Sandman is worthy to be noted.

Original actor Jamie Fox returned to play the role, while their original performances and the upgraded CGI in No Way Home are immediately observed. 

However, the most improved villain in terms of CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), undoubtedly, is Sandman.

In Spiderman 3, directed by Sam Raimi, where Toby Maguire was the hero, the graphics are limited.

It’s mostly limited to showing him extending his limbs and losing the balance of the gigantic body.

The best CGI scene we see of Sandman in Spider-Man 3 is his rebirth in a particle accelerator.

Albeit these graphics were good for the periods like 2007, the graphics used for Sandman in ‘No Way home’ are a lot better than those used in Spiderman 3.

In the latter movie, while fighting with others, Sandman can make himself massive which makes him much more intimidating compared to previous versions.

There was a scene where while sitting on Happy’s couch, he gets sand everywhere. This scene looks more realistic than the CGI sand in the former movie.   

In the movie ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2 the CGI used for Electro is less dated than the Sandman graphics of Spider-Man 3.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t look as good as the CGI in No Way Home.

In The Amazing Spider-Man 2, Electro is in bioluminescent blue skin all the time, whereas, in No Way Home, Fox spends most of the time with no CGI, except in the fighting scene.  

In Amazing Spider-Man-2, Peter Parker finds Electro in a field of transmission towers.

There the man with electricity-power fills the entire sky with lighting, showing how dangerous and destructive he can be.

The same CGI is seen in the last battle between three Spider-men and five villains. 

The graphics used in prior franchisees were pretty good for the time when those movies were released.

However, the upgraded CGI in the newest franchise shows how today’s modern special effects make the old supervillains more impressive and fascinating. 

As a result, Sandman and Electro were much more threatening in the latter movie and looked more interesting in this $1 billion earning movie than they were in previous editions.

These advancements have shown signs of how far the film industry has stepped ahead in the last decade and beacons many advancements in the future.

Visual and Sound Effects of No Way Home

The visual effect of the film generally has been tapered down, so that we don’t have to separate the effects-heavy works of Far from Home.

There are action scenes that include hand-to-hand combat. It feels more practical and visceral.

Besides, the sound effect is also a real asset for this $1 billion earning movie as they made the character of Peter Parker, Spiderman more realistic.