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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.

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