Despite lukewarm reviews, Spider-Man 3 webbed in an astounding $148 million dollars domestic this weekend. Not only is the biggest (unadjusted) three-day gross in history, beating last year’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest total of $135.6 million, but this weekend’s number two movie, Disturbia, netted $4.7. In fact, Spider-Man 3 drew $4.8 million, more than Disturbia, just in Imax theaters alone.< To say the film dominated the box office is a gross understatement. And it’s not just because the film had the widest release in movie history. Most impressively, the Sam Raimi sequel drew a mind-boggling $34,800 per screen over the last three days.
Obviously a sequel will be happening, even if all the main players fall away. You can’t credit Raimi enough for the series’ success, but with this film likely to be remembered as the weakest of the three, there’s no reason you couldn’t bring in another director at this point if Raimi proves unwilling to return.
Meanwhile, co-star Kirsten Dunst has stupidly been asserted that any sequel will fail is if it sans either her, Tobey Maguire or Raimi. The latter’s absence would be potentially damaging, but frankly we’re entering an age where the character is often bigger than the star playing him, like with James Bond. If I remember correctly, Maguire already tried to bluff his way into a bigger paycheck, and the studio immediately threatened to find another actor. As for Dunst being irreplaceable….please.
The overseas draw has been ever larger. In the first six days of release (it was released elsewhere a few days earlier than in the U.S.), Spider-Man 3 has drawn an additional $227 million. Although the reputedly $300 million dollar film (wow!) isn’t in profit yet—the studios grab only a percentage of the box office take; in this case, and in the earliest weeks of release before theaters get to keep more, probably around 70% (my guesstimate only)—it’s clear the studio’s gamble will pay off hugely.
As for the reviews, well, I haven’t seen the movie yet, but it seems to be falling into the trait that killed the first set of Batman movies. By which I mean, Raimi has crammed way too much stuff into the third film. Three supervillains (four, in a sense), the large returning cast of supporting characters, and the introduction of Gwen Stacey, who in the comics was Peter Parker’s girlfriend before Mary Jane Watson, and who was killed by the Green Goblin.
That’s a load of stuff to try to service in one film, and the next film might be better served to streamline things a bit. I think wonder why they don’t open the film with a battle (Spider-Man interrupting the Rhino during a bank robbery, for instance), and then moving on to the main plot. That allows you to feature more than one villain without the film going all over the place throughout the proceedings.
Spider-Man 3 should continue to rack up the major bucks until Shrek 3 comes out in two weeks, followed after that by the third Pirates of the Caribbean.
