When Palestinian filmmaker Bisan Ouda posted a call to boycott the new Spider-Man film, her message was shared thousands of times across social media platforms. She was not criticising the performances of Tom Holland or Zendaya, nor the direction of Destin Daniel Cretton. Her objection, she told her followers, was to the presence of producer Avi Arad, whom she described as a vocal supporter of Israel.

The appeal arrived just as Spider-Man: Brand New Day was rewriting the record books. The Sony release opened to $360 million in North America over the 31 July–2 August weekend, surpassing Avengers: Endgame’s previous high. By Tuesday it had crossed $1 billion worldwide, and by Thursday it became the first film to earn $500 million domestically in its first week. Trade publication Deadline projected a second-weekend gross of $135 million to $140 million, a figure that would push its domestic total past $650 million by Sunday.

The boycott campaign, which activists said was not aimed at the fictional hero or the cast, quickly spread beyond Ouda’s initial post. In Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia, as well as among pro-Palestinian groups in the United States and Europe, users circulated the call, arguing that any ticket purchase would financially benefit Arad. Organisers framed the action as a form of peaceful cultural pressure, an extension of broader boycott movements targeting individuals and institutions they accuse of backing the Israeli government.

The film’s commercial momentum showed no sign of slowing, however. It remained the year’s top-grossing title, with over $1.2 billion in global receipts by Friday, while Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, also in theatres, crossed the $1 billion mark on Thursday. As the weekend began, the contrast was stark: on one screen, a superhero hurtling toward another box-office milestone; on another, a digital campaign insisting that the price of admission was now a political choice.