'Spider-Man: No Way Home' Makes Box Office History

►🕷️💥$220M!💥🕷️Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home is well ahead of projections, with a mooted weekend debut of $220 million or more. If those estimates hold, the superhero pic would secure one of the top four openings of all time at the domestic box office.

No Way Home will be the first film in the COVID-19 era to zoom past $100 million in its domestic launch and do the sort of business a successful tentpole enjoyed before the pandemic struck almost two years ago. Friday’s expected haul of more than $100 million-plus will include a massive $50 million in Thursday previews.

THR's Pamela McClintock writes that the film scored the third-biggest preview gross of all time, behind Avengers: Endgame ($60 million) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($57 million), a remarkable feat considering the ongoing pandemic and concerns over the Omicron variant. To date, an increase in COVID cases doesn’t appear to be impacting the North American box office to any large degree. The box office report. 

 —🕷️"Entirely unique."🕷️THR's second nicest man Aaron Couch spoke to the team behind Spider-Man: No Way Home on the six-year journey that ultimately led to the three generations of Spidey films colliding. Sony film boss Tom Rothman, screenwriters Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers, casting director Sarah Finn, J.K. Simmons, Willem Dafoe and Benedict Wong all chime in with their thoughts on Spider-Man's latest big-screen outing. The story.

—🕷️Redefining Spider-Man.🕷️THR's Richard Newby looks back at how Tom Holland's Home trilogy broke new ground with the character for a contemporary generation, told the story of a boy’s growth into manhood, and ultimately built a better Spider-Man. Warning spoilers. The analysis. 

—🕷️Warning spoilers.🕷️If you've seen Spider-Man: No Way Home, you'll know it's full of references to Marvel films and comics — as well as inside jokes. In case you didn't spot them, or just want something confirmed, THR has drafted in Spider-Man expert Dan Gvozden to list 38 references and Easter eggs that feature in No Way Home. The list. 

Inside the Hollywood Labor Rebellion

►"We have awoken a sleeping giant." Across a raft of industries, the pandemic has reframed expectations about worker quality of life and broadened labor’s primary focus beyond wage bumps, and no where has that been more true than the entertainment industry. THR's Katie Kilkenny and Gary Baum look at how lockdown life, along with the pressures of corporate consolidation and streaming, have prompted a roiling Hollywood labor rebellion, and how the upheaval of 2021 is only the beginning. The story.  

—Agreement reached. Vice Media and its Writers Guild of America East-affiliated union have reached a new three-year contract agreement that consolidates four previously separate contracts. Vice Media’s 160-person bargaining unit has voted to ratify the contract. The story. 

—Dropped. Chris Noth has been dropped by A3 Artists Agency. A representative for the talent agency confirmed the move a day after THR reported that two women accused the actor of sexual assault. The story. 

—"Frustrating news for our customers." YouTube TV has lost ABC, ESPN and multiple other Disney-owned channels after the two companies failed to reach a contract on Friday evening. As a result, YouTube will be decreasing the monthly price of its TV streaming platform from $64.99 to $49.99 due to the loss of 25 channels, which also include the FX networks, Freeform, the Disney channels, the National Geographic channels and eight local ABC stations. The story. 

Making of 'Don't Look Up': How Adam McKay Created a Film He Had Been Thinking About For Years

►"It’s about creating a different narrative and a different type of conversation." Don't Look Up director-writer-producer Adam McKay and the creative team behind the film spoke to THR's Beatrice Verhoeven about scoring that A-list cast, shooting during the height of the pandemic, which character was the hardest to cast and choosing Netflix over the traditional studios: "This is a film that should be seen — if it goes on Netflix and a billion people see it, it’s so much more important." The story. 

—Félicitations! Australian actress Cate Blanchett will receive French cinema’s top honor, the César d’Honneur, a lifetime achievement award, from the French Film Academy. Blanchett will receive the prize in Paris on Friday, Feb. 25 as part of the 47th César ceremony, France’s equivalent to the Academy Awards. The story. 

—Come back nears. Hollywood’s historic Cinerama Dome theater has plans to reopen in 2022. Screenings are expected to resume at the historic theater, which has been dark since March of 2020, and its owners, the Decurion Corporation, has applied for a permit to sell alcoholic beverages there. The story. 

—"Journalists have strict ethics." Anderson Cooper addressed Chris Cuomo's ignominious exit from CNN on The Late Show, saying that he feels “terrible” for his friend and former colleague's family, but that journalism is "a business with very big responsibilities, and there are repercussions." The story. 

—First-look deal. HBO has signed a three-year, first-look deal with Texas Monthly magazine. Under the deal, the publication will develop new projects with the premium cable outlet and its sibling streaming service HBO Max. The deal comes as HBO Max is at work on Love and Death, a limited series based on a series of Texas Monthly articles about the killing of Betty Gore. The story.

Fox News' Legal Jeopardy Is Real, But Not for the Most Cited Reasons

►Widespread misinterpretations. A judge rejected Fox News’ motion to dismiss in a lawsuit claiming the network defamed Dominion Voting Systems in the wake of the 2020 presidential election. THR's Eriq Gardner writes that FNC's problem is not the billions in possible damages, nor is the discovery process that will supposedly reveal what Rupert Murdoch really thinks about the 2020 election. No, the source of the cable network's problem is something else. The analysis.  

—Expelled. HBO Max has canceled the update of the 1986-91 sitcom Head of the Class after a single season. HBO Max released all 10 episodes of the multi-camera series on Nov. 4. Like other streamers, HBO Max doesn’t release detailed viewing data for its programming. The story. 

—The word from down under. Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast led the nomination field for the 11th annual Australian Academy of Cinema and Television Arts International Awards with seven nods. Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog follows with six nominations, including for best film. Other best film nominees include Dune, Being the Ricardos and Licorice Pizza. The nominations.   

—"I really just love Black women who say what they mean and are not apologetic about it." THR's Lacey Rose spoke to comedian Nicole Byer about her first hourlong special Big Beautiful Weirdo that dropped on Netflix on Dec. 7, with the New Jersey native also opening up about her relationship with fans, her desire for balance and her fight to be seen as she really is. The interview. 

In other news... 

—In-person holiday parties back with heightened protocols amid variant concerns

—Despite Omicron, Berlin’s European film market is nearly booked solid

—Carol Mendelsohn, Universal TV land dramas at NBC, CBS

—AMC Studios snags rights to Rebecca Roanhorse’s Black Sun

—The Right Now expands team by hiring George Cabico and Andrea Higgins

—Discovery condemns new Polish media law as “attack on independent media”

—Some South Park fans struggling with one character’s depressing altered future in latest Paramount+ movie

—AMC Networks president of marketing Linda Schupack to exit

—YouTube beauty influencer Laura Lee signs with WME

—Chelsea Handler, Jo Koy on finding love, laughs and equity on tour 

What else we're reading...

—Gugu Mbatha-Raw: "It’s A Misconception That People Act To Get Attention" [The Guardian]

—With 1883, Taylor Sheridan Expands His Western Empire [New York Times]

—Kanye West’s 'Independent’ Campaign Was Secretly Run by GOP Elites [Daily Beast]

—‘The Corpse Bride Diet’: How TikTok Inundates Teens With Eating-Disorder Videos [Wall Street Journal]

—Ex-Olympian Accused Of Illegally Securing Millions In Covid Aid, Investing Part In Movie [NBC News]

Today... 

...in 2002, Peter Jackson unveiled the middle chapter of his Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers. The film went on to nab six Oscar nominations at the 75th Academy Awards. The original review. 

Today's birthdays: Steven Spielberg (75), Brad Pitt (58), Ray Liotta (67), Katie Holmes (43), Ashley Benson (32), Jason Mantzoukas (49), Rachel Griffiths (53), Casper Van Dien (53), Christina Aguilera (41), Billie Eilish (20), Sia (46), Sion Sono (60), Keith Richards (78),  Gillian Armstrong (71)