‘Spider-Man’ Raises Bar for New Films

Spider-Man has set himself up to be either the Joe DiMaggio or Mark McGwire of Hollywood films.

With a three-day take of $114.8 million at the box office--making it the first film to eclipse $100 million in that time--the question now is whether the film will prove as enduring as DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak or resemble the seemingly insurmountable record of 70 home runs slugged by McGwire, which soon fell to Barry Bonds.

The new weekend benchmark, as lofty as it is, makes for an irresistible target for Hollywood studios, for which bragging rights seem to matter as much as profits.

“It’s new territory for all of us,” MGM marketing chief Bob Levin said.

“Unfortunately, it changes the whole idea of how big a movie can open. The side effect will be increasing pressure on all of us who do these jobs to get those big weekends.”

All told, three out of four moviegoers nationwide went to see the screen adaptation of the classic Marvel comic books that follow the adventures of the superhero. That made “Spider-Man” an instant blockbuster, shattering all of Hollywood’s previous assumptions about how many people it can pack into theaters in a single weekend, drawing moviegoers across generations.

“I don’t think anyone can answer ‘How high is up?’” said Tom Borys, president of EDI/Nielsen, which tracks box office numbers.

Paul Dergarabedian, president of another box-office tracking firm, Exhibitor Relations Co., calls the “Spider-Man” accomplishment “the Holy Grail of box office.”

“It creates a new paradigm in terms of what a move can do. It puts a lot of pressure on all these films. Now ‘Spider-Man’ is the movie everybody is going to be judged against,” Dergarabedian said.

This summer alone, a host of big-muscle films will hit multiplexes such as George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode II--Attack of the Clones,” “Men in Black 2” and such other potential blockbusters as Steven Spielberg’s “Minority Report,” “XXX” and “Austin Powers in Goldmember.”

Later this year will come “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” and “Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” with such anticipated powerhouses as “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and “The Hulk” coming next year.

Opening weekend profits have steadily climbed for a decade, thanks in part to ticket prices that rose nearly 30% during the 1990s. In 1993, Steven Spielberg’s “Jurassic Park” became the first film to gross more than $50 million in a three-day weekend, a number that had seemed unthinkable.

But much of the recent growth in opening weekends is owed to studios’ flooding theaters with as many as 8,000 prints of its films nationwide, a growth in the number of multiplex theaters and the costly blitzkrieg marketing strategy that blankets TV networks, newspapers, radio stations, buses and billboard with film ads.

In addition, demographics are working in the industry’s favor. Teens are Hollywood’s most coveted audience, and today they have more disposable income than ever, spending on average $84 a week overall, according to Teenage Research Unlimited. Census projections also show the number of 12- to 17-year-olds--Hollywood’s prime movie audience and repeat customers--is growing at a fast clip, rising an estimated 7% in the next five years.

In November, studio executives got a hint that a $100-million weekend was possible when “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” came within spitting distance by grossing $90.3 million in three days. Given its 2 1/2-hour running time, which limited the number of shows at theaters, that box-office take convinced observers that more was possible.

Executives at Sony Pictures Entertainment, which released “Spider-Man,” knew as early as Saturday morning they were heading into new territory.

Results for the previous night showed the film had already grossed $39 million, a record. “Spider-Man” not only sold out most of the seats available in theaters, but with a playing time half an hour shorter than “Harry Potter,” theater owners squeezed in additional screenings.

“We had kids come back two and three times to see the film over the weekend,” said Jerry Pokorski, executive vice president for Pacific Theatres in Los Angeles.

National Assn. of Theatre Owners President John Fithian also noted that “Spider-Man” played to full theaters through its late showings because it also appeals to older moviegoers.

“You had a lot more people at midnight for ‘Spider-Man’ than you did for ‘Harry Potter,’” Fithian said.

At the end of the weekend, “Spider-Man” averaged a record $31,000 per screen for a major Hollywood release. “Spider-Man” out grossed the No. 2 film, “The Scorpion King,” by $105 million.

“Can we look forward to this again?” asked Universal Pictures distribution chief Nikki Rocco. “Who knows? It’s an anomaly, but it raises the bar. It’s all about the competitive marketplace.”

Shari Redstone, president of Boston-based National Amusements, estimates that 80% of the movie chain’s business last weekend came from “Spider-Man” on one-third of its 1,100 screens.

Redstone believes that it will be hard for films to eclipse “Spider-Man” for now. “You’re fairly well reaching the limits,” she said.

For studios, a new benchmark means added pressure because of how critical a film’s opening weekend is in a market crowded with new titles stacked on top of each other like cars trying to get through a traffic jam.

Studios spend more than $31 million a picture to market their films to fill seats on opening weekend, largely because under the terms they have with theater owners, studios keep a bigger chunk of the early receipts to defray those costs. Studios also face a growing trend in which films open to huge numbers, but plunge the next week because fans are moving on to the next must-see film.

In addition, with weekend box-office results now a mainstay of Sunday night television newscasts, falling short of any record risks tarnishing a film.

Last summer, “Pearl Harbor” opened to $59 million but was labeled a major disappointment given the high expectations for the film that had been built up by the hype.

“Spider-Man” has a long way to go to scale the industry box-office heights set by 1997’s epic “Titanic” from Paramount Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox. That film grossed $1.8 billion worldwide, of which a record $600 million was in North America, and remains the only film to occupy the top spot at the box office for 15 straight weeks.

As for opening weekends, Paramount Pictures Vice Chairman Rob Friedman said “Spider-Man” results show “that for a really highly anticipated, well-marketed and well-positioned movie, the sky’s the limit.”