Despite a surge in recent COVID-19 cases due to the Omicron variant, Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man: No Way Home" on Sunday surpassed the $1 billion mark at the worldwide box office.

The blockbuster became the highest-grossing movie of 2021 after debuting on Dec. 13. The latest Spider-Man installment saw box office numbers reach $467.3 million in North American theaters and $587.1 million internationally. Only "Avengers: Endgame" and "Avengers: Infinity War" reached the $1 billion mark in less time.

The success of "Spider-Man: No Way Home" comes after the film industry has taken a hard hit due to the pandemic and as the fast-spreading Omicron variant has led to more COVID cases in December. CNBC noted in October that 2021 movie ticket sales were nearly 70% behind the $11.4 billion of 2019.

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" became the first film since "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker" to surpass $1 billion and the first film since to reach the milestone since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.

"What this represents is quite mind-boggling," Comscore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian told CNN Business. "These numbers would be very impressive in the pre-pandemic era, but for 'Spider-Man: No Way Home' to sprint to a billion dollars in this marketplace is really hard to wrap your mind around."

"Spider-Man: No Way Home" has a 94% rating on movie review aggregation site Rottentomates.com. The Marvel film stars Tom Holland, Benedict Cumberbatch and Zendaya and is directed by Jon Watts.

Spider-Man live-action films have seen a financial boon since 2002, with the first installment "Spider-Man," directed by Sam Raimi and starring Tobey Maquire. The film made $825 million at the box office.

In 2019, "Spider-Man: Far From Home" made over $1.13 billion at the box office.