“Spider-Man Brand” is trending because Spider-Man: Brand New Day has overtaken Star Wars: The Force Awakens to become the highest-grossing movie of all time in North America. The box office milestone is the central news in coverage from Kotaku, IGN and Variety, with all three reporting the same change at the top of the domestic earnings rankings.
The key distinction is that this record concerns North American, or domestic, box office revenue—not worldwide earnings. Variety describes Brand New Day as the highest-grossing domestic release of all time, while Kotaku and IGN explicitly identify North America in their summaries. The attention is therefore focused on Spider-Man taking the domestic box office crown from The Force Awakens, rather than on a separate announcement about the Spider-Man brand.
