'No Way Home' Soars to Record $253M U.S. Opening, $587M Globally

►Dream start for Sony/Marvel, nightmare for GDT. Spider-Man: No Way Home spun a record-breaking web in its box office debut, grossing $253 million from 4,336 theaters to secure the third-biggest domestic opening of all time at the box office despite growing worries over the COVID-19 Omicron variant.

Overseas, where Omicron is even more of a concern in certain markets, No Way Home also made history, grossing $334.2 million for a global total of $587.2 million (all without China). That's the No. 3 global opening ever, not adjusted for inflation. 

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that even as No Way Home prospered, Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley became the latest adult-skewing title to disappoint, with a fifth-place weekend opening of $3 million range despite a well-known director and A-list cast. And Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story tumbled a steep 67 percent in its second weekend, furthering the narrative that midrange movies and adult-skewing films are an endangered species theatrically amid the rise of streaming. The box office report.  

 —"Amy and I and Disney and Sony are talking about [it]." Hoping to avoid the drama that followed Far From Home, Kevin Feige confirmed that Marvel and Sony are currently working on at least one more Spider-Man movie featuring Tom Holland. In an interview with the NYT, Feige and producer Amy Pascal pointed to No Way Home's ending as the launch point for another chapter. The story. 

—The tragedy of Spider-Man. THR's Graeme McMillan writes that Tom Holland's latest outing as the wall-crawler in No Way Home features a surprise that brings the hero back to basics. Warning spoilers. The analysis.

—Most impactful moments. THR's Ryan Parker considers the talking points amongst fans before No Way Home dropped, and with the film now out, wonders whether a certain long-running debate was ever even necessary. Warning spoilers. The story. 

'Little Shop of Horrors' Turns 35

►Feed me, Seymour! THR's Ryan Parker goes inside the making of Little Shop of Horrors, which was released 35 years ago on Sunday. Ryan speaks to director Frank Oz about how budget fights and a loathed original ending nearly torpedoed the beloved musical, and how he was only able to pull off the film thanks to the tutelage of the legendary Jim Henson. The story. 

—"We have reached a new distribution agreement." After a brief blackout that began on Friday night, ABC, ESPN and several other Disney-owned channels will return to YouTube TV after the Google-owned company and Disney reached a carriage agreement on Sunday afternoon. The story.

—"Abundance of caution." Due to the rise of the Omicron variant and surge of COVID-19 cases across the country, CNN has reverted back to office policies introduced amid the height of the pandemic last year. According to chief media correspondent Brian Stelter, the offices are closing to "all employees who do not have to be in the office to do their jobs." The story. 

—ICYMI. Saturday Night Live host Paul Rudd was introduced by fellow five-timers Tom Hanks and Tina Fey during the show's last outing of the year. Hanks and Fey donned matching five-timer navy blue robes emblazoned with a gold "5" crest, and introduced Kenan Thompson to present Rudd with the robe of honor. The recap. 

—Momentum. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association awarded Drive My Car prizes for best picture and best screenplay. Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s film has now picked up the critics best film prize in NY, D.C. and Boston. Netflix's The Power of the Dog was another key winner, with Jane Campion picking up the award for best director and Ari Wegner honored for best cinematography. The winners.

2021: The Year Hollywood's China Relationship Finally Unraveled

►Crossroads. Unlike other industries and entities that have begun to confront China over its horrific human rights abuses in Xinjiang and the brutal crackdown in Hong Kong, Hollywood has remained largely silent, ever hopeful that laying low would keep the door open to the world's second largest movie market. THR's Tatiana Siegel and Patrick Brzeski write that the failure of event films like Space Jam 2, Shang-Chi and Eternals to secure a release in the country raises fundamental questions about the studio's strategy and how 2021 might mark the year that finally cooled the Hollywood-China romance. The analysis. 

—Fatal stabbing. Los Angeles rapper Drakeo the Ruler has died after being stabbed multiple times at a Los Angeles festival. He was 28. The up-and-coming South Central rapper, whose real name was Darrell Caldwell, was attacked at the Once Upon a Time in LA concert at Banc of California and Exposition Park on Saturday. The story. 

—United States v. Facebook. THR's Eriq Gardner previews the first big court decision of the new year, the FTC challenging Facebook’s past acquisitions of Instagram and WhatsApp and alleging the company engaged in an illegal “buy-or-bury” scheme to beat out competition after failing to innovate. Eriq considers how Amazon (with MGM on its mind) will watch whether a judge rules that the FTC chair should have recused herself from targeting Facebook. The story. 

—Year of Adele. Ed Sheeran, Dave, Little Simz and Adele are the leading contenders for the 2022 Brit Awards, with four nods each. This year the Brits have combined separate male and female categories in both artist of the year and international artist. Females took two of the five spots for artist of the year (Adele and Little Simz), but four of the five spots for international artist (Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Olivia Rodrigo and Taylor Swift). The full list nominees. 

—Done deal. Boat Rocker Media has acquired a minority equity stake in Dakota Johnson and Ro Donnelly’s TeaTime Pictures.Terms were not disclosed, but the deal extends a two-year-old first-look deal between Boat Rocker and TeaTime to develop and produce scripted and unscripted TV and digital content. The story. 

Review: '1883' 

►"Genre cliches, mumbling and banal voiceover obscure potential." THR's chief TV critic Dan Fienberg reviews Paramount+'s 1883. After flirting with the Western genre in modern settings, Taylor Sheridan's new Yellowstone prequel puts stars Sam Elliott, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw on a 19th-century wagon trail across the wide-open prairie. The review.  

—"We’ve all been changed forever." In the brutal documentary The First Wave, filmmaker Matthew Heineman captured the battle against COVID-19 from the front lines of a New York City hospital inundated with patients in the chaotic early days of the pandemic. Heineman spoke to THR's Tyler Coates about the difficulties he faced making the doc and how he hopes it serves as more than a historical document of COVID’s early days. The interview.  

—"Movie theaters have sustained me." THR's nicest man Chris Gardner was at The Matrix Resurrections world premiere in San Francisco, where stars Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss and director Lana Wachowski walked the green carpet. Wachowski delivered a heartfelt speech about the power of cinema and self-reflection tied to her trans identity. The story. 

In other news... 

—Omicron: Netherlands shuts cinemas for one month, Ireland imposes curfew

—Carlos Marin, singer in British quartet Il Divo, dies at 53

—Denis Villeneuve to be honored by Advanced Imaging Society

—Michele Burke, Joy Zapata to receive Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild honor

—Steven Soderbergh shares his favorite places to enjoy a drink in Los Angeles

—Why stars like Steve Carell and Dakota Fanning are picking up tennis racquets

—Tennis courts are in demand again among Los Angeles home buyers

—Hollywood flashback: 20 years ago, The Lord of the Rings ruled them all 

What else we're reading...

—Ryan Seacrest Is Ready to Relax. A Little. The Smallest Possible Amount. [Wall Street Journal]

—Spotify Has a Gen Z Problem. Or Is It an Opportunity? [Bloomberg]

—How Jonny Greenwood Wrote the Year’s Best Film Score [New Yorker]

—Need A Warped, Tortured Or Evil Character For A Hollywood Film? Cast A British Actor [The Guardian]

—The Real-Life Diet of Guy Fieri, Who Balances Comfort Food With CrossFit [GQ]

Today... 

...in 1991, Oliver Stone and Warner Bros. unveiled the 188-minute conspiratorial thriller JFK. The all-star cast included Kevin Costner, Kevin Bacon, Tommy Lee Jones, Gary Oldman, Laurie Metcalf and Sissy Spacek and the film was nominated for eight Oscars at the 64th Academy Awards. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Dick Wolf (75), Jonah Hill (38), Todd Phillips (51), Jenny Agutter (69), Nicole de Boer (51), Azie Tesfai (29), Jillian Rose Reed (30), Alison Luff (33), Melanie Scrofano (40), Brian O'Halloran (52), Joe Cornish (53), Iqbal Theba (58)