Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Rotten Tomatoes Score, Explained

Spider-Man: Brand New Day's Rotten Tomatoes score has not held still since the review embargo lifted on 28 July, and it still had not finished moving by the time we checked again tonight. As of 29 July, the film's Rotten Tomatoes page reads 90% from 142 counted reviews. That is the sixth checkpoint logged since embargo lift. This site has already covered what critics actually wrote about the movie, in the first reactions out of the premiere and in a full read of 77 of those reviews. This piece is about the number by itself: every stop it made on the way here, where it appears to have leveled off, and what 90% is actually worth once you set it next to five years of Marvel releases.

The launch-day pattern is well documented by now. The score opened at 93% off the first 43 reviews at embargo lift, slid to 91% on 77 reviews per ComicBook.com, then was reported at 90% on a Forbes-cited 70-plus a few hours later. What that first day of coverage could not have caught is what happened next — the number kept falling before it turned around and, for the first time, actually stopped.

Every Checkpoint, In Order

Laid end to end, six snapshots logged since embargo lift tell a clearer story than any single one of them does alone.

The two middle rows will not perfectly sort against each other — “later” and “later still” were both same-day, same-page snapshots, and different outlets check and round at different moments. What is not ambiguous is the shape of the thing: the score fell four full points off its opening number, dipping as low as 89% on 110 reviews per ScreenRant, before finding a floor. It has now printed 90% twice in a row, at 135 reviews and again at 142, which is the first time since embargo lift that a fresh batch of reviews has left the number exactly where it found it rather than pushing it somewhere new.

Why It Finally Stopped Moving

A Tomatometer reading taken hours after embargo is a small, self-selected sample — heavy on critics who cover this specific beat and file fast, light on the wire services and general-audience outlets that turn reviews around closer to release day. At 43 or even 110 reviews, one cluster of harsher notices can swing the percentage by several points, which is roughly what produced the dip to 89%. Past around 140 reviews, that stops being true; each additional review moves the percentage by a fraction instead of a full point. Two identical readings back to back, at 135 and then 142, is usually the signal that a score has stopped being “early” and has become the number a film actually carries into its opening weekend.

Where 90% Actually Sits

A percentage on its own tells you very little. Here is Brand New Day's 90% next to the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's recent run, using each film's Rotten Tomatoes score.

Scan the list from 2022 onward and nothing gets close to 90% — not Wakanda Forever, not Guardians Vol. 3, not Deadpool & Wolverine, not Thunderbolts*, which was Phase 5's best-reviewed film and still lost the studio money. That gap is exactly why ComicBook.com and others are calling Brand New Day the highest-rated MCU release in five years: measured against every Marvel movie since Shang-Chi and No Way Home closed out 2021, it is genuinely the best-reviewed thing Marvel Studios has put out since.

The Same Number, Two True Stories

Slide the comparison the other way and that same 90% tells a less flattering story. Line up only Tom Holland's Spider-Man films and Brand New Day finishes last: below No Way Home's 93%, below Homecoming's 92%, below Far From Home's 91%. On score alone, this is the softest-reviewed Spider-Man movie Holland has made.

Both of those sentences are true, and both describe the same 142 reviews. Some critics are reaching for language stronger than the percentage alone supports.

Tom Holland's best performance as Peter Parker and the best Spider-Man movie since Raimi's SPIDER-MAN 2. — Mike Ryan, Uproxx

That is one critic's ranking, not something the Tomatometer itself says — 90% does not encode “best since 2004,” it encodes “90% of 142 critics leaned positive.” Others are far more guarded. TIME's review calls the film proof that Marvel can at least try to build something better, not proof that it fully succeeded, and The Guardian's review credits Zendaya with rescuing the film from its own familiar instincts rather than praising the film outright. A 90% average is sitting on top of that whole range. Reading the score honestly means holding both headline facts at once: best-reviewed MCU film in five years, and the lowest-scoring Spider-Man film of Holland's run. Neither one cancels the other.

What Isn't In The 90% Yet

Two numbers that matter are still missing from that headline figure. Metacritic's critic average — a 100-point scale built to reward consistency rather than a simple thumbs-up split — landed around 71, a noticeably cooler read than the Rotten Tomatoes number. Treat the 19-point gap between a 90 and a 71 as real information about how divided the reviews are, not as noise. And Rotten Tomatoes' audience side, the Popcornmeter, has not opened at all; the film's own page currently shows zero verified ratings, because that number only starts filling in once paying audiences, not critics, get a look at the movie.

That changes fast from here. More critics — especially national and international outlets that file closer to release day — will keep adding to the Tomatometer count, which is usually what finally locks a score in place for good. Separately, the Popcornmeter starts filling in once paying audiences get a look at the film, beginning with Amazon Prime's early-access screening on 29 July, two days ahead of the wide 31 July release. Until then, 90% from 142 critic reviews is the most current answer this site can give you — not necessarily the final one.