USA: The highly-anticipated summer film "Spider-Man 3" is smashing box office records across the globe

The box office earned record-breaking numbers for "Spider-Man 3" this past weekend across North America. The blockbuster film is already exceeding ticket sales expectations around the world. One box office analyst credits the movie's success on a new marketing strategy that will likely be copied in the future. The latest Spider-Man film is making a name for itself in more ways than one. According to distributor Columbia Pictures, "Spider-Man 3" has sold an estimated 375 million (USD) worth of tickets worldwide since opening internationally on May 1. It is the highest big-screen opening since "Stars Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" opened to 254 million (USD) in 2005. In North America, the film earned 148 million (USD) since launching on Friday (May 4), smashing the opening-weekend of 135.6 million (USD) set last July by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian says the numbers are over-the-top. "Internationally, it's breaking records in every territory that it's playing in," he said. "It's done 227 million (USD) just in the foreign territories, you add to that the 148 million (USD) opening weekend in North America, 375 million (USD) dollars that's by far a record-breaker." The film also set a single-day record with Friday (May 4) sales of 59.3 million (USD), beating the 55.8 million (USD) record also held by the Pirates' sequel, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest." The studio has reported that the film was also the most expensive to produce so far in the franchise. Sony spent 258 million (USD) on the Marvel Comics' sequel compared to 200 million (USD) for "Spider-Man 2" and 139 million (USD) for "Spider-Man." The high-end marketing and advertising for the film added about 125 million (USD) to the bill. In a bid to create simultaneous worldwide buzz, Columbia started rolling out the film across Asia and Europe on Tuesday, and added markets as the week progressed. Great Britain and North America were among the last to get the movie. Dergarabedian believes the successful strategy will be emulated by other film companies in the future. "A lot of studios are going to take a page from this playbook of Spider-Man 3," he told Reuters Television. "They opened it in various worldwide territories early on before it was released in North America. And when those record-breaking grosses were coming in and being reported here in North America I think that got people really excited to go see the movie. It also staved off piracy at the same time it built up anticipation for the North American opening. That culminated with these record-breaking numbers." The film set opening-weekend records in more than two dozen countries, including Japan, South Korea, China, Russia, Italy, Mexico and Brazil. Dergarabedian says the overwhelming success of "Spider-Man 3" bodes well for the other films coming out between now and Labor Day weekend. "Of course with Shrek the Third and Pirates of the Caribbean, the third instalment of that right on the heels of Spider-Man, it's going to be a very big May. I think though this is good for the industry. Because you had a record number of people in theatres being exposed to in theatre marketing and trailers for all these upcoming summer films. People are very excited to be going to the movies. It's a very positive thing. I think that can only help the other movies," he said. Fourteen sequels are scheduled to be released in theatres this summer. Not only is that the second-highest number of summer sequels ever, it is also the greatest concentration of third instalments hitting the big screen at once.

ITN Source | May 9, 2007

Tags:. .foreign. .mexico. .excited. .upcoming. .analyst