SPIDERMAN 3: The Ultimate in buff box office |
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It came. It saw. It conquered. And suddenly, nothing is the same.
The Big One hit the worldwide box office last week. The epicenter of the 10.0 international box office earthquake was SPIDERMAN 3. This Sony Pictures three-peat launched the Summer Movie Season as nothing before ever has – and it may be a long while before another motion picture topples the worldwide box office records that were set last week.
The first rumbling of the SPIDERMAN 3 earthquake was felt and heard in sixteen Asian markets where the latest entry in the Marvel Comics franchise blasted off on May 1. 10 of the 16 openings shattered records as the biggest opening day of all time. 3 topped SPIDERMAN 2's opening day in the same territories by a whopping 86%, and 3 topped the original SPIDERMAN in those territories by an earthshaking 175%.
The unprecedented box office bonanza continued for Sony with out-of-this-world European opening days on May 2. France's $6.1 million represented the country's biggest opening day of all time, beating the previous record-holder TAXI 2 ($4.5 million), as well as the combined opening day grosses of SPIDEY and SPIDEY 2. Germany and Japan each racked up their biggest openings of all time.
Shock waves were also felt as records were shattered in Austria, 
Kirsten Dunst sings for her SPIDEY 3 supper |
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Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, Egypt, Singapore, the Phillipines, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Thailand.
Back home, SPIDERMAN 3 was record-breaking even before its North American debut. The film was set to launch on 4,252 screens nationwide, setting a new record for the widest motion picture release ever. The previous record holder was SHREK 2 with 4, 223 screens in the second weekend of its 2004 release.
Cinco de Mayo brought the news that SPIDEY 3 had set a new record for a one-day North American gross, hauling in an astonishing $59 million on Friday, May 4. The previous one-day record-holder, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, opened last year to $55.8.
As the May 4 weekend unfolded, the box office continued to shake, rattle, and roll, as one all-time box office record after another fell.
As The Hollywood Reporter put it on the morning of Monday, May 7, "Redefining the definition of a blockbuster, SPIDERMAN 3 leaped from one box office record to another during the weekend, ensnaring an unprecedented $148 million in North America. It easily catapulted past the previous record holder for an opening weekend, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST, which bowed to $135.6 million last July."
As for SPIDEY 3's distributor, Sony Pictures, Amy 
T Haden Church SIDEWAYS to SPIDEY 3 |
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Pascal, the company's co-chairman remarked, "We're really proud of everyone who made the movie and everyone who marketed it."
Looking ahead to the inevitable SPIDERMAN 4, Pascal said, "We're a lot further on than we usually are....We're already talking about what we want to do in the next one."
As for me, I found 3 more satisfying than 2. For one thing, the whole Doc Och thing never grabbed me. I far preferred 3's Sandman and Venom. And watching SPIDERMAN take a walk on the wild, dark side was great fun. All that, and Kirsten Dunst singing Irving Berlin. too.
SPIDEY 3 is expected to cause record-breaking after-shocks at the North American box office again over Mother's Day Weekend. But how long can SPIDEY'S box office stranglehold last? SHREK THE THIRD hits screens on Friday, May 18. One week later the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN three-peat sails in. Box office pundits are betting that both SHREK and PIRATES peaked with their last installments and that the SPIDERMAN 3 aftershocks will continue to shake the box office until HARRY POTTER works his own brand of magic in July.
Whether or not SPIDEY continues his record-breaking ways, or topples under the weight of SHREK and/or PIRATES, the worldwide box office will not soon forget the Spiderman Juggernaut of May 2007.
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| The Business of Show |
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Does advertising, public taste, or overindulged stars determine a movie's box office fate? Christoper Stone explores what's going on behind the box office.
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| Christopher Stone |
Christopher Stone is the author of the international best seller Re-Creating Your Self. With Mary Sheldon, he co-authored three highly successful hardcover books of guided meditations.
He is a member of the Writers Guild of America, West.
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