Tom Holland's 'Spider-man: No Way Home' opens with $50 mln

"Spider-man: No Way Home" took in $50 million at US and Canadian movie box offices on Thursday, according to Reuters.

It was the third-highest total for preview showings ahead of its opening weekend, the news agency quoted distributor Sony Corp (6758.T) as saying on Friday.

Box office watchers are spinning hopeful predictions for "Spider-Man: No Way Home," which hit theaters Friday, with some estimates for its North America opening weekend alone reaching $150 million or higher.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" is British star Tom Holland´s third solo outing in the wildly popular role, played in earlier films by Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.

The webslinger has form when it comes to big openings.

The original "Spider-Man" film starring Maguire in 2002 was the first movie in the history of cinema to gross more than $100 million on its debut weekend.

On the red carpet for Monday´s world premiere in Los Angeles, Holland raved about the latest film´s "nostalgia, the culmination of three franchises, the celebration of cinema."

The plot picks up directly from 2019´s "Far From Home," which saw Peter Parker publicly unmasked by the villainous Mysterio.

Parker scrambles to regain his anonymity, with the help of another popular Marvel movie character -- Benedict Cumberbatch´s Doctor Strange.