No surprises here … Spider-Man 3 took the top spot at the box office for a second weekend, as the worldwide total for the third film in the web-slinging trilogy hit an estimated $622 million.
After 10 days, the North American total for “Spider-Man 3″ stands at $242.1 million. By contrast, 2004′s “Spider-Man 2″ had earned $256 million after two weekends, and 2002′s “Spider-Man” $223 million. (“Spider-Man 2″ got a two-day head start, opening on a Wednesday.)
The latest film suffered a steep 60 percent drop from its first weekend, compared with 49 percent for “Spider-Man 2″ and 38 percent for “Spider-Man.” Columbia said it was comfortable with the slide given the film’s record-breaking $151 million first weekend. The previous holder of that record, “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest,” fell 54 percent last year.
The picture up above, BTW, was found at And I Am Not Lying, For Real and a post on Ten Spider-Man Appearances That Will Never Hit Hollywood . As weird as Spider-Ganesh might look, I think my favorite on the list is the team-up between Superman, Batman, Spider-Man and wrestling legend Capt. Lou Albano, where Albano is turned into an evil giant and the other heroes have to fight him. I think we’ve found the plot for Spider-Man 4.
In other Spider-Man 3 news:
–FX has nabbed the rights to show the movie on TV in 2009.
–James Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of The Physics of Superheroes looks at how well the Sandman holds together against the laws of physics in a New York Times editorial.
–The other two Spider-Man movies came in at no. 2 and no. 4 in the San Jose Mercury News’ informal poll on what the best live-action comic book superhero movie is. Batman Begins took the no. 1 spot by a wide margin, followed by Spider-Man 2, Hellboy, the first Spider-Man and the 1989 Batman film. They took the poll before Spider-Man 3 came out.
–The Miami Herald chats with Thomas Haden Church about bulking up for the part of Sandman. Church is an A&M graduate, so I’ll end this post with a big “Whoop!”
