Spider-Man 3’ smashes box-office records


Spider-Man caught just about everyone in his web. The superhero’s latest adventure, “Spider-Man 3,” smashed box-office records with $148 million in its first three days, according to studio estimates Sunday.

That put it ahead of the previous record debut of $135.6 million set last summer by “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest.”

With $59.3 million on opening day Friday, Sony’s “Spider-Man 3” broke the single-day box-office record, also held by “Dead Man’s Chest” with $55.8 million in its first day.

Since it began rolling out overseas on Tuesday, “Spider-Man 3” has taken in $227 million in foreign markets, bringing the film’s worldwide total to $375 million. In just days, the movie has grossed $117 million more than its whopping $258 million production budget.

In just two days, it also nearly matched the $114.8 million opening weekend of 2002’s “Spider-Man,” which had held the debut record until “Dead Man’s Chest” opened.

Also among the records smashed by “Spider-Man 3” was a $4.8 million domestic gross at huge-screen IMAX theaters, topping the previous best of $3.6 million set by “300” in March.

Playing in a record 4,252 locations domestically, “Spider-Man 3” averaged a whopping $34,807 a theater.

Domestically, “Spider-Man 3” could enter its second weekend Friday with $200 million already in the bank. The film has the market largely to itself for the next week and a half, with no major competition arriving until DreamWorks Animation’s “Shrek the Third” arrives May 18.

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