Sony's "Spider-Man 3" set records Tuesday in every one of the eight Asian
territories in which it bowed. Pic opens in dozens of other territories in the
next few days, culminating Friday in its domestic launch on 4,253 theaters, the
widest North American opening of all time.
Pic launched Tuesday in more than a dozen key territories, including Japan,
France, Germany, Italy and South Korea. Another eight go today, with 30 more on
Thursday (including China, Australia and Russia) and an additional 30 on Friday
(including the U.K. and India).
Euro markets should report their initial tallies Wednesday. In its opening day
Tuesday, Sony estimated that the pic hit ¥415 million ($3.47 million) in Japan,
beating "Spider-Man 2's" ¥410 million. The first "Spider" took in ¥347 million
in its first day in Japan in 2004.
In Korea, latest pic also beat out one-day marks for its predecessors, taking
in 3.2 billion won ($3.44 million), Sony honcho Jeff Blake said.
In Hong Kong, Spidey saw the biggest opening day of all time, with $HK7.5
million ($958,984), besting previous record holder "Kung Fu Hustle."
Pic also drew the biggest ever opening day of any film in Thailand, Malaysia,
Singapore and the Philippines. In Taiwan, it saw the biggest weekday opening
ever.
The list of domestic engagements could be tweaked by a few screens more or
less but should comfortably beat the 4,163 locations in which DreamWorks bowed
"Shrek 2" two years ago.
Sony launched "Spider-Man 2" at 4,152 in 2004.
The only other pics to have debuted in more than 4,000 locations are "Pirates
of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Madagascar," "Superman Returns," "Over the
Hedge," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Shark Tale." All of those have been
released since 2004, as Hollywood's race to put up massive opening numbers
escalates.
After eight splashy premieres worldwide, Sony unspooled its final preem
Stateside on Monday night, showing "Spider-Man 3" on 14 screens simultaneously
at the Tribeca Film Festival.
At the preem party in Gotham, Sony Corp. chairman-CEO Howard Stringer
wondered whether the studio should have rolled out "Spider-Man" in North America
last weekend, when overall biz was way down, giving Peter Parker even more of a
chance to make his money grab.
But either way, the exec was confident, saying that this installment in the
series is "more of a date movie" than the first two in the franchise and thus
has the potential to draw even wider demographics.
© Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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