The summer season has exploded in high fashion with the opening of Columbia Pictures' SPIDER-MAN 3, which spun a North American gross of $151M and a worldwide gross of $231M for a total of $382M for the weekend period ended May 6, 2007. It's the highest opening ever in movie history. Playing in a record 4,252 domestic locations, the film took in an average of $35,540 per screen. The film also unspooled at more than 8,900 locations abroad.
In addition to being #1 for the weekend in all 107 territories around the world in which it opened, SPIDER-MAN 3 (with impressive work from lead vfx studio Sony Pictures Imageworks) set a new mark for the biggest weekend of all time in 29 countries, including the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Italy, Mexico and Brazil. Among its many accomplishments, the film set new records for the biggest single worldwide day (Saturday, May 5: $117,631,328), biggest international opening ($231 million) and biggest worldwide opening ($382M).
In Korea, SPIDER-MAN 3 did three times the business of the previous record holder (Korean film THE HOST) and bested the previous-best Hollywood film (THE MATRIX RELOADED) by more than four times. In Japan, SPIDER-MAN 3 broke the old record opening weekend by 44%; in Brazil, by 48%, in Mexico by 37%; and in Italy, the film beat the previous record holder, Sony's THE DAVINCI CODE, by 24%.
Among the domestic records set by SPIDER-MAN 3 are biggest opening weekend ($151,116,516 vs. $135.6M for PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN'S CHEST), biggest single day (Friday, $59,841,919) and biggest per-theater average for a wide release ($35,540). The film also set a new record for the largest domestic gross in IMAX theaters, with $4.8M.
"This weekend, more than 80% of the moviegoers around the world chose SPIDER-MAN 3 and we couldn't be more overwhelmed or elated by the global reception to this movie," said Jeff Blake, vice chairman, Sony Pictures Ent... This was truly a massive achievement not only for Sony Pictures, but the film industry as a whole. Summer is finally here and we expect that moviegoers everywhere will find that the 2007 season will be one to remember."
Meanwhile, as for the rest of the box office, Paramount/DreamWorks' DISTURBIA (with vfx by Halon and Pacific Title) followed in second place with $5.8M for a four-week cume of $60M. New Line's FRACTURE jumped from fourth to third with $3.6M and a cume of $26.7M. The fourth spot belonged to Buena Vista's THE INVISIBLE (with vfx by Gray Matter FX), which tallied $3.2M and $12.4M. Settling for fifth was Paramount's NEXT (with vfx by Digital Dream, Look Effects, Tweak and Comen VFX) with $2.8M and $11.9M. Debuting in sixth was Warner Bros.' LUCKY YOU with $2.7M. Holding seventh was Buena Vista's animated MEET THE ROBINSONS with $2.6M for a cume of $91.9M. Grabbing eighth was Paramount/DreamWorks' BLADES OF GLORY (vfx from Rainmaker Visual Effects, Digital Dimension, Image Engine, Gentle Giant Studios, Intrigue and Spectrum Effects), which brought home $2.4M for a cume of $111.7M. The ninth place finisher was Rogue Pictures' HOT FUZZ (with vfx from Double Negative and Framestore CFC), which captured $2.2M and for a total of $16.3M. And holding the 10th spot was Sony/Revolution's ARE WE DONE YET?, which managed $1.7M for a cume of $46.1M. Box office information obtained from boxofficemojo.com.
Bill Desowitz, former editor of VFXWorld, is currently the Crafts Editor of IndieWire.
