How Every Spider-Man Movie Stacks Up According To Rotten Tomatoes Scores
Spider-Man has been swinging through movie theaters for more than two decades, and the character has now been played by three different actors across eleven feature films, counting two celebrated animated entries. With the arrival of ‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ fans and critics alike have another data point to argue over when it comes to ranking the wall crawler’s cinematic output.
Rotten Tomatoes remains the most commonly cited barometer for how critics received each installment, and with a new film now in theaters, it felt like the right moment to line up every score in one place. Below is every Spider-Man movie, animated included, ranked from the highest Tomatometer score to the lowest.
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’
‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ sits at the very top of the franchise with a score of 97 percent, the highest of any Spider-Man film released to date. The film is one of two Spider-Verse animated movies that stand as huge hits which should not be ignored simply because they are animated.
Miles Morales’ introduction to the big screen was praised for its animation style and its willingness to embrace the multiverse concept years before it became a franchise staple. Its reputation has only grown with time, and it remains the benchmark against which every subsequent Spider-Man movie gets measured.
‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse’
The sequel to the animated original, ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse,’ landed at 95 percent, just two points shy of its predecessor. At the time reviews were tallied, 95 reviews had come in with exactly 95 percent of them positive, meaning the sequel had already surpassed ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ in terms of critical reviews.
The film expanded the animated universe considerably, introducing more variants of Spider-People while continuing the story of Miles Morales and Gwen Stacy. Critics responded to its scope and ambition in much the same way they had to the first film.
‘Spider-Man 2’
Sam Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man 2’ holds a 93 percent score, tying it for third place overall and making it the highest rated of the three original Tobey Maguire led films. It sits alongside ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ near the top of the franchise’s critical standings.
Often cited as a turning point for how seriously superhero sequels could be taken, the film built on the origin story of the first ‘Spider-Man’ while deepening Peter Parker’s internal conflict between his personal life and his responsibilities.
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’
‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’ also sits at 93 percent, tying it with ‘Spider-Man 2’ for the third highest score in the franchise. The film closed out the first MCU Spider-Man trilogy while also serving as a twenty year celebration of the character, and it brought back actors from earlier eras of the franchise as part of its multiversal story.
Its willingness to fold in nostalgia from the Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield eras was a move that resonated strongly with both critics and audiences.
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’
‘Spider-Man: Homecoming’ comes in at 92 percent, making it the highest rated of Tom Holland’s solo outings prior to ‘Brand New Day.’ It served as the third reboot of the franchise following Sam Raimi’s trilogy and Marc Webb’s Amazing Spider-Man films, arriving with high fan anticipation thanks to the character’s scene stealing debut in Captain America Civil War.
The film grounded Peter Parker back in high school, trading globe spanning stakes for a more personal coming of age story, an approach critics widely embraced.
‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’
‘Spider-Man: Far From Home’ holds a 91 percent score. The film picks up with Peter Parker struggling to reconnect with those around him while facing a new threat, continuing the arc set up by its predecessor.
It became the first Spider-Man film to cross the billion dollar mark at the global box office, a commercial milestone that arrived alongside its strong critical reception.
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day’
‘Spider-Man: Brand New Day,’ the newest entry in the franchise, debuted to a 90 percent Certified Fresh score from a growing pool of reviews. Cosmic Book News reported the film opened at 90 percent Certified Fresh from 135 reviews, noting that critics repeated the word grounded across their notices, crediting the movie for trading multiversal chaos for personal stakes and street level threats.
The film ties the original ‘Spider-Man’ as one of the more modestly scored entries among the franchise’s top tier, though it still lands comfortably in Certified Fresh territory. Some early aggregations placed the number as high as 92 percent before it settled, which is typical as review counts continue to grow in the days surrounding a wide release.
‘Spider-Man’
Sam Raimi’s original 2002 ‘Spider-Man’ holds steady at 90 percent, tied with ‘Brand New Day’ for the same score two decades apart. Rotten Tomatoes describes the film as providing a good dose of web swinging fun while also having heart, thanks to the combined charms of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire.
The film is credited with helping usher in the modern era of comic book blockbusters, and its critical standing has remained remarkably stable in the years since its release.
‘The Amazing Spider-Man’
Marc Webb’s reboot, ‘The Amazing Spider-Man,’ sits at 72 percent. Rotten Tomatoes notes that a well chosen cast and sure handed direction allow the film to thrill, despite revisiting many of the same plot points from the 2002 original.
Andrew Garfield’s first turn as Peter Parker was generally well received even if critics felt the film leaned heavily on familiar origin story beats.
‘Spider-Man 3’
The third and final film in Raimi’s original trilogy, ‘Spider-Man 3,’ scored 66 percent. Despite not performing nearly as well critically as the earlier films in the trilogy, the movie remains the third highest grossing Spider-Man film, having earned approximately 894.9 million dollars.
The film’s decision to juggle multiple villains at once is often cited as its biggest weakness, a criticism that would echo years later in a different Spider-Man reboot.
‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’
Closing out the list is ‘The Amazing Spider-Man 2’ at 51 percent, the lowest score of any Spider-Man film to date. The film carries the worst reputation of any entry in the franchise, with its ending frequently cited as one of the factors making it a reasonably hard movie to watch.
The mixed reception effectively ended Andrew Garfield’s run as the character in his own franchise, though he would later return for a supporting role in ‘No Way Home.’
With ‘Brand New Day’ now added to the mix, the gap between the best and worst reviewed Spider-Man movies remains as wide as ever, and it raises an obvious question for longtime fans of the wall crawler. Where would you personally rank Tom Holland’s fourth outing against the rest of Peter Parker’s cinematic history?
