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Tim Briody: I vote for biggest weekend, since as we mentioned, nobody saw that coming. We knew it'd have some impressive single day figures and there was going to be a laughably large range over the #2 movie, but $148.0 million is just nutty.

Joel Corcoran: I have to agree with David. The weekend box office take was stunning, but the numbers David mentioned are just mind-blowing.

David Mumpower: That is what surprises me the most. It hasn't just beaten Dead Man's Chest's record, but it has done so in comfortable fashion. Dead Man's Chest broke a 50-month old record by $20.8 million. I thought that would stand indefinitely. Instead, Spider-Man 3 has turned around and beaten that stunning number by another $12.4 million. The bar has been raised $33 million from Spider-Man's seemingly unbreakable $114.8 million in the past ten months.

Kim Hollis: Bruce Campbell can really pack 'em in.

BOP collectively says mea cupla

David Mumpower: So, ten months ago, we all engaged in a discussion about when the new $135.6 million record would be broken. All of us agreed it would stand for several years to come. Why were we universally wrong on the point?

Kim Hollis: As you mentioned, Pirates broke the previous record by such a significant amount that it seemed a tough pinnacle. And when we consider that there are any number of blockbusters spread through the summer months this year, it felt like audiences would have plenty of chances to go for what they liked most.





David Mumpower: This answer is not complicated. We simply underestimated Spider-Man 3's appeal as the end of a hugely popular saga ten months ago. Heck, we underestimated it just last week. With 11,000 prints - 2,500 more than Dead Man's Chest - Spider-Man 3 had unique marketplace ubiquity, and it capitalized on this.

Joel Corcoran: I also think the film benefited from a demonstrated upswing in the movie market. Ghost Rider took in $45 million it's opening weekend, and 300 brought in almost $71 million. Neither of those movies had the franchise history, star power, or fanbase of Spider-Man 3. I don't know what's causing this upswing. I don't understand why people are going to movies now (over the past six months) when the box office was trending downward over the past few years. But there is some obvious shift going on.

Reagen Sulewski: I'm not sure if it was as much that it was just *how* bad the spring movie season has been. It's been a running theme in my previews the last month or so about just how bad April sucked. Audiences were looking for something, anything, that looked like an event.

Kim Hollis: I think what we really discounted is the fact that Spider-Man 2 was *so* good that audiences were aching to see more of him. He's that relatable character that works for all ages. My biggest shock is that I thought box office behavior had adjusted itself somewhat to the point that people didn't absolutely feel the need to rush out and see these things opening weekend. I guess when it's Spidey, that doesn't hold true.

David Mumpower: I think that's a great point, Kim. It also is something to keep in mind for the eventual release of Spider-Man 4. With many questioning the quality of Spider-Man 3, that type of legacy impact due to quality won't happen next time.

Tim Briody: But that might not bode well for its prospects through the rest of the month, since compared to both Spider-Man 1 & 2, this was not nearly as well recieved.

David Mumpower: Oh, I completely agree on that point, Tim. I wrote the Weekend Wrap-Up for Spider-Man 3 and I vacillated upon the point of how much I should focus on the rest of the month versus this weekend. I have a lot of concerns about Spider-Man 3's holdover after opening weekend.

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