Spider-Man: No Way Home actress Mary Rivera has died at age 82.
Rivera is best known for playing Ned Leeds’ (Jacob Batalon) grandmother in a memorable scene featuring the returns of Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s respective versions of Spider-Man in the 2021 blockbuster.
According to an online obituary, Rivera “passed away peacefully” in Honolulu, Hawaii, on April 15. A celebration of life was held on June 6.
The obituary said Rivera was “very proud” of her brief but notable scene in Spider-Man: No Way Home.
TMZ first reported news of Rivera’s death on Monday, August 4. A family member reportedly told the outlet that the actress had suffered a stroke and went into a coma, and her family was warned she was in serious condition. The family opted to remove her from life support. She was later cremated, said the report.
Rivera is survived by her husband Alejandro Rivera, her four children — Carmela Jones (Jay), Paul Rivera (Leilani), Edwin Rivera and Angela Kelly (Jaime) — as well as 11 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren, per her obituary.
Spider-Man: No Way Home grossed over $1.92 billion at the box office, a feat almost certain to be surpassed by Spidey’s latest big screen adventure, Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
The film, which sees Tom Holland reprise his role as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, has to date grossed over $930 million despite only hitting theaters on Friday, July 31.
In the U.S., Brand New Day had the biggest opening weekend of all time, grossing $360 million between Friday and Sunday, August 2, overtaking previous record holder Avengers: Endgame, which earned $357 million back in 2019.
“It’s overwhelming, frankly, to find ourselves in this position on a Monday morning. In the very best way,” Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige told Variety on Monday, August 3. (Marvel and Sony Pictures coproduced the film.)
In his interview with Variety, Feige admitted he didn’t think another movie would open to $300 million after Endgame “for all the reasons I don’t think anyone did, because of COVID, because of the beating that theatrical took for so long.”
“But once the bar had been raised, it could be raised again, right?” he added. “The first movie to ever cross $100 million over opening weekend was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man. The first to cross $150 million in one weekend was Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3. The first to $200 million was the first Avengers. And then, of course, the first to $300 million was Endgame. We did think that things could increase, but the past five or six years didn’t necessarily feel like that was the case. That’s a long-winded way of saying I did not expect Endgame’s record to be beat, but I couldn’t be happier that it was beat this past weekend by our 38th MCU movie.”
