Spidey’s Records set Studio Standards High

Wow!!

It will be very difficult for Shrek The Third and At World's End to top Spiderman 3's gross. The competition will be strong this year. I think Dead Man's Chest did so well last year because it had somewhat weak competition. Superman Returns was not the huge blockbuster it was expected to be. I think this year's lineup is better than last year's. More competition will likely mean the box office take will be more spread out. Spiderman 3 was the first out of the gate so it has quite an advantage. Shrek the Third and At World's End will be a week apart so they may take away each other's audience. It will certainly be interesting to watch in the next couple of weeks what happens. The summer of 07 has begun.

Disturbia has had some decent legs.

I think Pirates will win the total box as it has more appeal to the teen girls who will pay so see Pirates 3 or 4 times just to see Depp and Bloom.

I don't think Shrek has a chance of beating Spidey's box office, but Pirates is certainly still in the running. Both franchises have a lot in common, not the least of which is that previous installments have broken box office records (for that matter, so has Shrek).

The next two weekends will be critical. If next weekend's drop is steeper than the previous installments, that may mean that the fans who have proclaimed this the weakest of the three have not gone back for a repeat viewing. Then the following weekend will be its first real blockbuster competition with Shrek 3. Even if it holds up well the next two weekends, that's no guarantee that it will beat Pirates. As noted above, Pirates does have an edge with the female audience, which I believe extends beyond the teenage girls - there's a lot of adult women who swoon over Depp.

However, I'm going to stick by my guns and predict Spidey will beat Pirates in a close race. If I were to make any change to my Top Ten in the summer movie race, I'd probably bump Die Hard for Evan Almighty. There's always one comedy that breaks into the summer's top movies, and I think that one will do quite well as a family comedy, given the perennial popularity of the Noah's Ark story with kids.

I thought this was an interesting bit regarding IMAX's b.o. Planning to catch SM3 in both formats.

From CNN.com:

"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."

Personally I believe that Pirates will have the large box office records. It’s date of release with it’s only major competition being Shrek 3 which will have already gained it’s initial opening weekend prior to Pirates release gives it essentially three weeks until Fantastic Four 2 comes out which is the next blockbuster in line for the summer after it. So you have opening weekend and on top of that three full weeks with the only competition being Shrek 3.

With the amount of money made so far with Spidey I’m not sure if it’s legs will hold out for too long, but we saw with Pirates 2 that it was still in the top ten money makers at theaters almost two months after it’s release. All around I think there will be a larger calling for an audience for Pirates 3. I could be wrong. It might not make or break opening weekend records set by Spidey 3, but I believe it will last longer in the theater with a better run in the end.

A.

I enjoyed Spider-Man 3, but I have been hearing ALOT of negativity from - well - almost everyone I know. There have a been a handful of "pretty goods" and a couple "best of series", but mostly "that was too much and I'm disappointed" and "that sucked so bad" that I'm shocked.
I'm still hedging my bets with Pirates beating Spidey - but I may change my mind depending on next weekend's drop. If Spidey can keep it's drop from going more than, eh, about 40-45%, it could win. These weekend numbers shocked me a little - I expected Spidey 1 numbers at best.
It's gonna be a knock-down, drag-out fight between these two films. Can't wait to see what happens!
I don't plan on seeing Spidey 3 again in the theater, and I don't know anyone else who plans on it either. Anyone here going to see it a second time?

To answer your question Merin, Yes I do plan to see it a second time. As a matter of fact I already did. Twice on friday. Man, I just had to see Venom and Sandman again. They were awesome. Special Effects were great in this film. Seeing Venom come to life was a dream come true for me :). I think Topher and Church did a great job with their characters, especially Topher, he stole every scene he was in.
Personally, I enjoyed it and liked it way more than Spider-Man 2( I was never ok with Spidey losing his powers due to a mental block). Spidey 3 had some great action and some great stuff overall but I admit it isn't perfect or the best super hero film out there( that still goes to Batman Begins in my opinion). I think Spidey 3 had to much going on and they should've broken it down to 2 films(spidey 3 and 4), i hated the dark gothic peter look and his dance sequence, and it had some cheesy parts and under developed characters(especifically Sandman, his daugher is sick and i know this because she has a cane and a tube up her nose? at least tell me what the disease is and how the expensive the treatment is)

I have to agree with ya there, Merin. This is going to be drag out doozy of a fight.

I can't believe it made 375 million dollars in one opening swoop.

It's unbelieveable for me to process the information here and yet I can't wait to see if studios utilize this strategy again to have as big openers as Spidey 3 did.

Jarrod

On a personal note, I also wished we could've had more Venom! Here's what I would've done with Spidey 3. The main villains should've been Harry Osbourne and the Sandman and introduce Eddie Brock. They could've worked the Harry Osbourne storyline just the same, expanded on the Sandman and Gwen Stacy character and have the symbiote storyline as well. I would've ended Spidey 3 with Peter doing something awful like killing or almost killing the Sandman and him realizing the suit is making him act out of character so he goes to the church and takes it off. blam it hits Brock and Venom is seen for the last shot of the film, clif hanger for part 4. In part 4 we can have way more Venom plus have Doc Conners working with the symbiote and his experiments of regeneration thus creating the Lizard. So we have 2 villains and maybe Spidey then needs Harry's help.