Spider-Man: Brand New Day has barely arrived in cinemas, yet a huge number of people seem to have already watched Tom Holland’s newest Marvel film without paying for a seat.
Holland’s fourth standalone outing as Spider-Man opened to enormous anticipation, continuing Peter Parker’s story after Spider-Man: No Way Home ended with the world forgetting who he was.
Zendaya reprises her role as MJ, while Jacob Batalon returns as Ned. Jon Bernthal’s Punisher makes the jump from the television side of the MCU into the movie world, and Sadie Sink appears in a part Marvel had gone to great lengths to keep secret before release.
That level of secrecy was designed to preserve the movie’s major twists, especially for audiences catching it during its first weekend.
Even before release, though, staying spoiler-free had become difficult. Rumours about the plot and cast had been circulating for months, making July 29 a key date for fans hoping to avoid having anything ruined.
Those efforts took a serious hit when a full, high-quality bootleg of the film was uploaded straight to X, formerly known as Twitter. According to Variety, the pirated version allowed millions of users to watch Spider-Man: Brand New Day for free before it was eventually removed.
The upload was reportedly shared by an account called ‘Fredrick Bryan’ at 6.05am PT on July 31, the same day the movie opened in US theaters.
Reports say it stayed live for more than nine hours and was only taken down at roughly 3.25pm PT.
Before it disappeared, the post had allegedly been shown to 5.9 million accounts, racked up more than 143,000 likes, and been reposted over 10,000 times.
Several other accounts were also said to have posted copies of the movie, though most were removed far more quickly. Some users said they managed to get through a significant chunk of the film before the uploads vanished, while others started asking if anyone had downloaded it.
Clips featuring key spoiler moments also began circulating widely across the platform.
IGN found that several were later replaced with a message reading:
“this media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner”
Sony chose not to comment on the leak, and it is still unknown whether the studio plans to pursue further action against the people responsible.
The situation follows another recent piracy case involving Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, which was also reportedly posted in full on X. That film, an epic adaptation of Homer’s classic, had been released two weekends earlier on July 17.
That upload is said to have pulled in 2.1 million views in just two and a half hours before being removed, with the account behind it later suspended.
Universal Pictures later said:
“We became aware of the unauthorized posting of the film and immediately initiated takedown protocols. We take copyright infringement seriously and will pursue all appropriate remedies to protect our content and intellectual property rights.”
The incidents highlight a growing challenge for studios as X Premium subscribers can now share videos up to four hours long on the platform, making it possible for users to release entire pirated feature films.
Even with the leak, the early box office picture suggests Spider-Man: Brand New Day has still opened in a huge way.
The film reportedly brought in a record $72 million from preview screenings and early-access showings, beating the $60 million preview figure achieved by Avengers: Endgame. On Friday alone, the film is projected to earn between $167 million and $173 million, already surpassing the previous opening-day record held by Avengers: Endgame. Early estimates suggest the film could reach between $260 million and $280 million for its full opening weekend, potentially making it the second-biggest opening of all time behind Avengers: Endgame‘s record of $357.1 million.