Top 12 Film Industry Stories of 2007: #6:
Spider-Man 3 Shatters Opening Weekend Record
By David Mumpower
December 30, 2007
BoxOfficeProphets.com

With all that money, you'd think he could afford a non-ripped suit.
"On August 23, 1939, John Cobb staked his claim at Bonneville Salt Flats, Utah. He broke the world's land-speed record by over 12 miles per hour. Over the next quarter century, a record that had been broken on average of once a year by different men for the past two decades stood the test of time. Only Cobb himself was able to surpass his own personal best. His land-speed times were unbeatable until September of 1963 when Craig Breedlove covered the same surface in Utah at a speed 14 miles per hour faster than Cobb had ever managed. Movie box office does not work quite the same, but in the current landscape, Spider-Man had covered similar ground to Cobb.

"The comic book adaptation's $114.8 million opening weekend in May of 2002 had stood the test of time during a period when almost all other movie exhibition records fell. Contenders such as three Harry Potter sequels, two X-Men sequels, two Star Wars prequels and Mel Gibson's epic, The Passion of the Christ, all took a run at the title. All of them failed to match the performance of Spidey despite the fact that they had ticket price inflation and many more exhibitions going for them. So, BOP cannot underscore the point that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest's performance is a stunner."

This was the description I used in this very space last year in describing the shattering of the opening weekend record previously held by Spider-Man. That title's debut of $114.8 million had become the white whale of box office records to the point that even fictional movies such as Aquaman on Entourage were gunning for it. The target was that tantalizing to observers in the movie industry. Then, on July 7, 2006, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest debuted to $55.8 million on its first day. At once, we all realized that the movie needed a weekend multiplier of only 2.1 to break the record that had stood for five years (and two weeks).

Two days later, Dead Man's Chest had broken the record by over $20 million, winding up with a result 18% better, $135.6 million. The occasion seemed momentous at the time. In describing the event at the end of the year, I accidentally laid the groundwork for future events when I referenced the fact that John Cobb's record followed in the footsteps of ones that had fallen at the pace of once a year previously. Such was the case with the opening weekend record set in 2006.

As hype built for Spider-Man 3, the last title in the franchise guaranteed to star Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst and be directed by Sam Raimi, discussions began about whether the (temporary) conclusion to the Spidey saga could reclaim its throne. No one knew at the time that Raimi would have Maguire breaking out the jazz hands for the final chapter, so consumers had cause for much optimism. Sure, that seems odd in hindsight, but we have learned from past box office history that the final movies in trilogies open huge. Of course, they also demonstrate great legs, but we'll get to that in a moment.

The first step in Spider-Man 3 reclaiming what had been its own records was the single day box office record. What had formerly been the best day ever, $43.6 million, had slid all the way down to sixth place behind such titles as X-Men: The Last Stand, Shrek 2 and of course Dead Man's Chest. That mission was accomplished in short order as Spider-Man 3 capitalized on 24 hour exhibitions across the country to earn $59.8 million, a 7.1% increase over Dead Man's Chest's $55.8 million.

Not quite ready to rest on its laurels, the trilogy's finale followed that day with a Saturday performance of $51.3 million. This total currently stands as the best Saturday of all time. But wait! A $39.9 million performance followed on the next day, a Sunday. This too is the best total ever for that day. Putting it all together, Spider-Man 3 debuted to the biggest Friday, Saturday and Sunday of all time, making it not just the largest opener of all time with $151.1 million, but giving it that record in strikingly impressive fashion.

The question you are probably asking yourself right now is why this story is not ranked higher on the list. We did, after all, determine that Dead Man's Chest crushing a four-year old record was the biggest story of 2006. What has changed in just a year that makes Spider-Man 3's surpassing of that record by another 11.4% or $15.5 million less noteworthy? The answer lies in a couple of other issues. The first is that we simply are not as impressed with Spider-Man 3's domestic run as we were with what Dead Man's Chest did. Dead Man's Chest was not a one and done tentpole blockbuster. It earned another $288 million after opening weekend. Neither its opening nor its final box office total was surpassed by its successor, At World's End. Spider-Man 3 is closer to the final Pirates film in this regard than the middle one. It is the least successful Spidey movie with only $336.5 million in domestic receipts, a total $37 million lower than Spider-Man 2 and $67 million lower than the original Spider-Man.

The other factor is that in comparison to record-setting summer box office, what Spider-Man 3 did on the whole wasn't overly impressive. Yes, the title currently stands as the #1 release of 2007, but let's be honest here. If you had to pick the most impressive performance of the summer, you would select Transformers. That was the unknown property that came out of nowhere to earn in excess of $300 million. Spider-Man 3 started with a nuclear explosion of box office receipts, but it soon whimpered out with an unsettling amount of box office. Relative to what came before it in the franchise, this title was nothing impressive in any way save for its first three days. Then again, given that these very days are the biggest Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of all time, the movie has still accomplished something extraordinary. The problem is that, in the football vernacular, it marched down the field 99 yards, but then had to settle for a field goal in the end.