Introduction

Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man. Directed by Sam Raimi from a screenplay by David Koepp, it is the first installment in Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy. The film stars Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris. The story follows timid teenager Peter Parker, who gains superhuman abilities after being bitten by a genetically engineered spider. He adopts the masked persona "Spider-Man" and begins to fight crime in New York City, facing the malevolent Green Goblin in the process.

Development of a live-action Spider-Man film began in 1975, but stalled for nearly 25 years due to licensing and financial issues. Columbia Pictures finally licensed the project for a worldwide release in 1999. David Koepp was hired to create a working screenplay, which was eventually rewritten by Scott Rosenberg and refined by Alvin Sargent. Various directors were considered before Raimi was hired in 2000. Filming took place in Los Angeles and New York City from January to June 2001. Danny Elfman composed the musical score, while Sony Pictures Imageworks handled the visual effects.[6]

Spider-Man premiered at the Mann Village Theater on April 29, 2002, and was released in the United States on May 3. The film received positive reviews from critics and audiences, who praised Raimi's direction, the story, the performances, visual effects, action sequences, and musical score. It was the first film to reach $100 million in a single weekend, as well as the most successful film based on a comic book at the time. With a box office gross of $826 million worldwide, it was the third highest-grossing film of 2002, the highest-grossing superhero film, and the sixth-highest-grossing film overall at the time of release. The film garnered nominations for Best Sound and Best Visual Effects at the 75th Academy Awards, among numerous other accolades. Spider-Man is credited for redefining the modern superhero genre and the summer blockbuster.[7][8][9] It was followed by two sequels, both directed by Raimi: Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Spider-Man 3 (2007). Maguire and Dafoe later reprised their roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021), which explores the concept of the multiverse and links the Raimi trilogy to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Plot

On a high school field trip, Peter Parker visits a Columbia University genetics laboratory with his best friend, Harry Osborn, and his love interest, Mary Jane Watson. There, he is bitten by a genetically engineered spider, and falls ill upon returning home. Meanwhile, Harry's father Norman tests a performance-enhancing chemical on himself in an attempt to secure a military contract for Oscorp, the company he founded. The chemical causes him to go insane and kill one of his scientists.

The next day, Peter develops spider-like abilities, including enhanced strength, senses, agility and speed, organic webbing in his wrists, and the ability to cling to walls. Hoping to buy a car to impress Mary Jane, Peter wins an underground wrestling event, but is cheated out of his earnings. Soon after, Peter's Uncle Ben is killed by a thief who robbed the wrestling event, and whom Peter let escape. Peter pursues the thief, who eventually falls to his death. Meanwhile, a crazed Norman sabotages a product test by an Oscorp rival and kills several people.

Upon graduating, Peter begins using his abilities to fight crime. He creates a spider suit and mask, and adopts his wrestling alias "Spider-Man". J. Jonah Jameson, the publisher of the Daily Bugle newspaper, hires Peter as a freelance photographer, since he can provide high-quality images of Spider-Man. When Oscorp's board of directors decides to oust Norman and sell the company, Norman assassinates them while wearing a disguise. Peter fends off Norman and rescues Mary Jane. Afterwards, Jameson bestows the name "the Green Goblin" upon the mysterious masked killer.

Norman offers Peter a place at his side, but Peter refuses. They fight, and Peter flees after being wounded. Peter's Aunt May invites Mary Jane, Harry, and Norman over for Thanksgiving dinner. Norman sees Peter's injury and realizes that he’s Spider-Man. Later, Norman attacks and injures May, who is hospitalized. Peter is still unaware of the Goblin's identity, but realizes that the Goblin is targeting his loved ones. While visiting the hospital, Mary Jane confesses to Peter her infatuation with Spider-Man, who has rescued her twice. Harry, who is dating Mary Jane, sees her holding Peter's hand and assumes she has feelings for him. A distraught Harry tells his father that Peter loves Mary Jane.

Norman captures Mary Jane and a tram car full of children. He tells Peter to choose whom to rescue, then drops them both from the Queensboro Bridge. Peter saves everyone, then lowers them to a nearby barge for safety. An enraged Norman throws Peter into an abandoned building, then brutally beats him. After Norman reveals his intentions to kill Mary Jane, Peter finds the strength to fight back. Norman reveals his identity and begs for forgiveness, while discreetly preparing to impale Peter with his glider. Warned by his spider-sense, Peter dodges the attack, and the glider fatally skewers Norman instead. Before dying, Norman begs Peter not to reveal his identity to Harry. Peter takes Norman's body to the Osborn house, where he is confronted by Harry, who grabs a gun. Before Harry can fire, Peter escapes.

At Norman's funeral, Harry vows revenge on Spider-Man, whom he holds responsible for his father's death. Mary Jane then confesses to Peter that she loves him. Peter, however, feels he must protect her from his enemies, so he hides his true feelings and tells her that they can only be friends. As Peter leaves, he recalls his uncle's words: "With great power comes great responsibility."

Cast

Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker / Spider-Man: A high school student who is bitten by a genetically engineered spider. He gains spider-like abilities and begins fighting crime as a masked vigilante.
Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn / Green Goblin: A scientist who becomes a costumed terrorist. He is the founder of Oscorp and the father of Harry Osborn.
Kirsten Dunst as Mary Jane Watson: Peter's love interest, who is dating Harry.
James Franco as Harry Osborn: Peter's best friend, Mary Jane's boyfriend and Norman's son.
Cliff Robertson as Ben Parker: Peter's uncle who is killed by a carjacker.
Rosemary Harris as May Parker: Peter's aunt.[10][11]
J. K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson: The Daily Bugle publisher, who considers Spider-Man a criminal.

Joe Manganiello plays the bully Flash Thompson, while Michael Papajohn appears as The Carjacker who kills Ben Parker.[a][12] Ron Perkins portrays Dr. Mendel Stromm, Norman's head scientist, while Gerry Becker and Jack Betts play the Oscorp board members Maximillian Fargas and Henry Balkan, respectively. Stanley Anderson appears as General Slocum, while K. K. Dodds portrays Norman's assistant Simkins. Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi and Elizabeth Banks play the Daily Bugle employees Joseph "Robbie" Robertson, Ted Hoffman, and Betty Brant, respectively.[13][14] Tim deZarn and Taylor Gilbert portray Philip Watson and Madeline Watson, respectively. Randy Savage appears as Bonesaw McGraw, Bruce Campbell portrays the Ring Announcer, Octavia Spencer portrays the Ring receptionist, and John Paxton plays Bernard Houseman, the Osborn family's butler.[15] Stan Lee, the co-creator of Spider-Man, has a cameo appearance at the World Unity Fair.[16]

Production

Development

Beginning in 1975, Marvel Comics made plans to bring its characters to the big screen. In the early 1980s, following the critical and commercial success of Superman (1978), which in turn was based on rival DC Comics’ flagship character Superman, Marvel was in negotiations with film producers to bring their flagship character Spider-Man to the big screen. Producer Roger Corman was the first to hold an option on the Spider-Man property and began to develop the film at Orion Pictures. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee was brought on to write a screenplay which featured Cold War themes and Doctor Octopus as the primary antagonist. The project did not come into fruition following budgetary disputes between Corman and Lee, as well as the critical and commercial failure of Superman III (1983) making film adaptations of comic books a low priority.[17] The film rights were then acquired by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of The Cannon Group for $225,000 in 1985.[18][19] The two were not familiar with the character's background and mistook Spider-Man for a werewolf-like character. Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, was hired to write a screenplay based on this concept. Stevens' script depicted Peter Parker as a photographer who is subjected to a mad scientist's experiment, which transforms him into a human tarantula. Tobe Hooper, who was preparing to shoot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Invaders from Mars for Cannon, signed on to direct.[20] Lee hated the horror route the studio was taking with the character and demanded that a new script be written that was closer to the source material.[21][22]

By 1985, a new script was being written by Ted Newsom and John Brancato. In this version, Peter Parker receives his spider-like abilities from a cyclotron experiment. Doctor Octopus served as the antagonist and was written as Parker's mentor turned enemy. Barney Cohen was brought in to do a rewrite which added humor, additional action scenes, and a supporting villain.[23] Newsom and Brancato had John Cusack in mind for the part of Peter Parker.[24] Cannon hired Joseph Zito to direct the film having previously directed the commercially successful Invasion U.S.A. for the studio. For the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the studio considered Tom Cruise while Zito was interested in casting actor and stuntman Scott Leva who had previously done promotional appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel.[25] Bob Hoskins was considered for Doctor Octopus while Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn were considered for Aunt May. The role of Uncle Ben was considered for Gregory Peck and Paul Newman. Lee expressed his desire to play J. Jonah Jameson in the film. The project was tentatively titled Spider-Man: The Movie and was budgeted between $15–20 million. Following the critical and financial failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe which were produced by Cannon, the budget for Spider-Man: The Movie was cut to $7 million. Joseph Zito was unwilling to compromise and stepped down as director. He was replaced by Albert Pyun who was willing to make the film at a lower budget. The project was cancelled following Cannon's acquisition by Pathé and Golan's departure from the studio.[20]

Golan extended his option on Spider-Man during his tenure as CEO of 21st Century Film Corporation. By 1989, Golan attempted to revive the project using the original script, budget, and storyboards developed at Cannon. In order to receive production funds, Golan sold the television rights to Viacom, home video rights to Columbia Pictures, and theatrical rights to Carolco Pictures[26] where James Cameron became attached to write and direct the film. Cameron had previously met with Stan Lee to discuss a possible X-Men film until Lee convinced Cameron that he would be a good choice to direct a Spider-Man film.[27] Cameron said superheroes were always fanciful to him.[28][29] James Cameron submitted a treatment to Carolco in 1993,[30] which served as a darker, more mature take on the character's mythos. In addition to featuring Spider-Man's origin story, it also included reimagined versions of the villains Electro and Sandman; the former was portrayed as a megalomaniacal businessman named Carlton Strand, while the latter was written as Strand's personal bodyguard named Boyd. Cameron's treatment also featured heavy profanity, and a sex scene between Spider-Man and Mary Jane Watson atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Carolco set a $50 million budget for Spider-Man, but progress stalled when Golan sued Carolco for attempting to make the film without his involvement.[31] Cameron had recently completed True Lies for 20th Century Fox as part of a production deal with the studio. Fox attempted to acquire the film rights to Spider-Man for Cameron but this proved unsuccessful. At this point, James Cameron had abandoned the project and began work on Titanic and other things.[32][33] He would reveal in a 1997 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he had Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio in mind for the lead role.[34] In 1995, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) acquired 21st Century Film Corporation's rights to produce the film, which had given them access to the previous Spider-Man scripts. MGM then sued Viacom, Sony Pictures, and Marvel, who they accused of fraud in the original deal with Cannon. The following year, 21st Century, Carolco, and Marvel would all file for bankruptcy.[35]

No film studio showed interest in a Spider-Man movie following the disastrous reception of Batman & Robin in 1997, after which film studios no longer took the superhero genre seriously and had the perception that "comic books were for kids". However, the release of Blade by New Line Cinema in 1998 and the development of X-Men by 20th Century Fox convinced some studios that a Marvel character "could carry on" a movie.[36] Marvel would emerge from bankruptcy in 1998 and declare that Menahem Golan's option had expired and that the rights had reverted to them. Marvel would then sell the film rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures' parent company for $7 million.[37] The deal came into effect in March 1999.[38]

In April 1999, although Sony Pictures optioned from MGM all preceding script versions of a Spider-Man film, it only exercised the options on "the Cameron material", which contractually included a multi-author screenplay and a forty-five-page "scriptment" credited only to James Cameron. The studio announced they were not hiring Cameron himself to direct the film nor would they be using his script.[39] The studio lined up Roland Emmerich, Jan de Bont, Chris Columbus, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Ang Lee, David Fincher, Tony Scott and M. Night Shyamalan as potential directors.[40][41] However, most of the directors approached were less interested in the job than in the story itself.[36] Fincher did not want to depict the origin story as he felt it was "dumb", pitching the film as being based on The Night Gwen Stacy Died storyline, but the studio weren't interested.[42][43][44][45] Columbus would later pass on the project to direct Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone instead.[46] Burton expressed a lack of interest by remarking that he was "just a DC guy", given his past work in Batman and Batman Returns.[36] Amy Pascal's choice for director was Sam Raimi.[47] Raimi was attached to direct in January 2000,[48] for a summer 2001 release.[49] He had been a fan of the comic book during his youth, and his passion for Spider-Man earned him the job.[50] Raimi's agent Josh Donen warned him that he was not Sony's preferred choice for the job, leading Raimi to cite all his reasons for which he would be the ideal director for the project during a meeting with Pascal, producer Laura Ziskin, Calley, Marvel Studios chief Avi Arad and film executive Matt Tolmach before abruptly ending his pitch after one hour, not wanting to overstay if Sony's executives did not want him.[36]

Sam Raimi in 2014

David Koepp was brought aboard to write the screenplay and Cameron's work became the basis of his first draft screenplay, often word for word.[51] Koepp said that Cameron's script was "influential".[52] Koepp pitched the idea of having Peter Parker not getting his Spider-Man suit until after the film's first forty five minutes so they could stretch out the origin story and that Peter and Mary Jane would not get together at the end, feeling that them ending apart was romantic.[36] Cameron's versions of the Marvel villains Electro and Sandman remained the antagonists. Koepp's rewrite substituted the Green Goblin as the main antagonist and added Doctor Octopus as the secondary antagonist.[53] Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker would be more interesting, thus, he dropped Doctor Octopus from the film.[54] In June, Columbia hired Scott Rosenberg to rewrite Koepp's material. Remaining a constant in all the rewrites was the "organic webshooter" idea from the Cameron "scriptment".[55] Raimi felt he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Parker invent mechanical webshooters.[56] This decision was controversial with long-time fans.[57]

Rosenberg removed Doctor Octopus and created several new action sequences.[58] Raimi felt adding a third origin story would make the film too complex. Sequences removed from the final film had Spider-Man protecting Maximilian Fargas, the wheelchair-using Oscorp executive, from the Goblin, and Spider-Man defusing a hostage situation on a train.[42] As production neared, Ziskin hired award-winning writer Alvin Sargent, to polish the dialogue, primarily between Parker and Mary Jane.[59] Columbia gave the Writers Guild of America a list of four writers as contributors to the final Spider-Man script: Rosenberg, Sargent and James Cameron, all three of whom voluntarily relinquished credit to the fourth, Koepp.[51]

Casting

For the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the filmmakers sought an actor who was not excessively tall or handsome, but who had the "heart and soul" for the audience to identify with.[36] The studio expressed interest in Leonardo DiCaprio, Freddie Prinze Jr., Chris O'Donnell, Jude Law, Chris Klein, Ewan McGregor, Wes Bentley, and Heath Ledger. DiCaprio had been considered for the role in 1995 by James Cameron.[b] Scott Speedman, Jay Rodan and James Franco were also involved in screen tests for the part.[65][66] Joe Manganiello auditioned, but was cast as the bully Flash instead.[67]

Tobey Maguire was cast as Peter Parker/Spider-Man in July 2000,[68] having been Raimi's first choice for the role after he saw Maguire in The Cider House Rules.[69] The studio was initially hesitant to cast someone who did not seem to fit the ranks of "adrenaline-pumping, tail-kicking titans",[68] but Maguire managed to impress studio executives with his audition. The actor signed a deal in the range of $3 to $4 million with higher salary options for two sequels.[68] To prepare for the role, Maguire improved his physique over several months by training with a physical trainer, a yoga instructor, a martial arts expert, and a climbing expert.[56][70] He studied spiders and learned how to perform arachnid-like movements.[71]

Nicolas Cage, Jason Isaacs, John Malkovich and Billy Bob Thornton were considered for the role of Norman Osborn/Green Goblin, but turned it down.[c] Willem Dafoe was selected for the part in November 2000.[76] He was intrigued by the prospect of working with Raimi and by the idea of a film based on comic books.[d] He insisted on wearing the Green Goblin costume himself, as he felt that a stuntman would not convey the character's necessary body language. The 580-piece suit took half an hour to put on.[42]

Kate Bosworth, Eliza Dushku, Jaime King and Mena Suvari unsuccessfully auditioned for the role of Mary Jane Watson.[e] Kate Hudson was offered the part but turned it down.[82] Elizabeth Banks auditioned, but was told she was too old; she was cast as Jameson's secretary Betty Brant instead.[83] Raimi also considered Alicia Witt for the role.[84] Kirsten Dunst auditioned and earned the role a month before filming began.[42] To create Mary Jane's red hair, Dunst's hair was dyed in the front and she wore a half-wig.[85] The producers wanted Dunst to get her teeth straightened, but she refused.[86]

Stan Lee was interested in playing J. Jonah Jameson, but the filmmakers felt he was too old to convincingly play the part. Lee was supportive of the eventual casting of J.K. Simmons, feeling that Simmons gave a better performance than he could have achieved.[87] Hugh Jackman was supposed to have a cameo as the X-Men character Wolverine, but the appearance was scrapped after the production team realized they did not have the character's costume.[88][89]

Design

The original animatronic headgear for the Green Goblin was created by Amalgamated Dynamics.

The Green Goblin's original headgear was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics.[90] Dafoe described it as a "Halloween mask" and "kind of silly-looking". The designers then created a helmet that Dafoe termed "very angular, very modern ... more like an armor."[36] Dafoe also wanted the costume to be flexible enough to allow him to do splits.[91]

To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape.[92] One concept costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs.[42] In early development, Acheson experimented with a potential helmet-like design for the suit, which was then scrapped. It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes in which Spider-Man would take his mask off, there was an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask eye lenses were designed to have a mirror look.[93]

For the spider that gives Peter his abilities, Raimi selected the Steatoda grossa, which was painted with red and blue makeup.[94]

Filming

With Spider-Man cast, filming was set to begin in November 2000 in New York City and on Sony soundstages. The film's release was scheduled for November 2, 2001,[68] but was postponed to May 3, 2002, due to an extended post-production schedule.[95]

Principal photography officially began on January 8, 2001, in Culver City, California.[59] The project's cinematographer, Don Burgess, shot the film with Panavision Platinum and Millennium XL cameras with Primo Lenes.[96] After the September 11 attacks, certain sequences were re-filmed, and a shot of the Twin Towers was removed from the film.[f] Sequences in Peter's home and in the wrestling arena were filmed on soundstages, as was the Times Square sequence where Spider-Man and the Green Goblin battle for the first time. For this scene, a three-story set with a breakaway balcony piece was built. The scene also required shooting in Downey, California.[100] In March, a construction worker named Tim Holcombe was killed when a forklift modified as a construction crane crashed into the construction basket he was in.[101] The following court case led the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to fine Sony $58,805.[102]

In one scene in the film, Mary Jane kisses Peter while he is hanging upside down in the rain. During filming, water was pouring into Maguire's nose, which made it difficult for him to breathe.[g] Randy Savage insisted on doing his own stunts, one of which resulted in injury.[107] The shot in which Peter catches Mary Jane's food tray was achieved without visual effects and with Maguire's hand glued to the tray. The shot took 156 takes and 16 hours to accomplish.[108]

In Los Angeles, filming locations included the Natural History Museum (for the Columbia University laboratory where Parker is bitten), the Pacific Electricity Building (the Daily Bugle offices) and Greystone Mansion (for the interiors of Norman's home).[109] On April 4, Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and Sony put up a $25,000 reward for their return.[110] They were recovered after 18 months; a former studio security guard and an accomplice were arrested.[111][112][113] Production moved to New York City for two weeks, taking in locations such as the Queensboro Bridge, the exteriors of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and the New York Public Library, and a rooftop garden in the Rockefeller Center.[100] The crew returned to Los Angeles where production continued, and filming wrapped in June 2001.[59] The Flatiron Building was used for the Daily Bugle.[59]

Visual effects

John Dykstra was hired as the film's visual effects supervisor in May 2000.[114][115] He convinced Raimi to use computer-generated imagery (CGI) for many of the stunts that were physically impossible. Raimi had used more traditional special effects in his previous films.[50] Raimi worked hard to plan all the sequences of Spider-Man swinging from buildings, which he described as, "ballet in the sky." The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million.[69] Shots were made more complicated because of the main characters' individual color schemes, so Spider-Man and the Green Goblin had to be shot separately for effects shots: Spider-Man was shot in front of a greenscreen, while the Goblin was shot against bluescreen. Shooting them together would have resulted in one character being erased from a shot.[42][116][117]

Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being, "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication to give subtle hints of still making Spider-Man feel like a human being.[118] When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts.[42] In addition, Dykstra's crew had to composite areas of New York City and replaced every car in shots with digital models. Raimi did not want it to feel entirely like animation, so none of the shots were 100% computer-generated.[119]

Music

Danny Elfman composed the musical score for Spider-Man.[120] Its soundtrack combines traditional orchestration, ethnic percussion, and electronic elements. Its distinct ethnic characteristics are credited to Elfman, who spent a year in Africa studying its unique percussion.

Release

Marketing

After the September 11 attacks occurred in 2001, Sony recalled a Spider-Man teaser poster and a teaser trailer, both of which depicted the World Trade Center towers.[121] The poster showed a close-up of Spider-Man's face with the towers reflected in his eyes, while the trailer showed a helicopter getting caught in a giant spider web spun between the towers.[h] The trailer, which according to Sony did not contain any actual footage from the film, was also removed from the home video release of A Knight's Tale.[i] Raimi later stated that the helicopter scene was originally in the film, but was removed after the attacks.[129] A new teaser poster featuring Spider-Man and the Green Goblin was unveiled in November 2001.[130] A month later, a new trailer debuted on television and in theaters.[131] An additional trailer was released online and in theaters near the end of March.[132]

To promote the release of the film, Sony partnered with CKE Restaurants to release kids meal toys at Hardee's and Carl's Jr. restaurants. Beginning in April 2002, the locations offered customers three different Spider-Man collector's cups and patrons could purchase a Spider-Man figure to attach to their car radio antenna. A month later in May, "Cool Combos for Kids" would feature one of four different toys highlighting Spider-Man or his nemesis, the Green Goblin.[133] KFC would then follow suit, releasing their own Spider-Man kids meal toys at their locations in the United Kingdom.[134] Other promotional partners included Dr Pepper, Hershey's, Kellogg's, and Reebok.[135]

Theatrical

In the United States, Spider-Man was rated "PG-13" for "stylized violence and action".[136] Before the film's British theatrical release in June 2002, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) gave the film a "12" certificate. Due to Spider-Man's popularity with younger children, this prompted much controversy. The BBFC defended its decision, arguing that the film could have been given a "15". Despite this, North Norfolk and Breckland District Councils, in East Anglia, changed it to a "PG", and Tameside council, Manchester, denoted it a "PG-12". In late August, the BBFC relaxed its policy to "12A", leading Sony to re-release the film.[137][138]

In March 2024, Sony announced that all of its live-action Spider-Man films would be re-released in theaters as part of Columbia Pictures' 100th anniversary celebration. Spider-Man was re-released on April 15, 2024.[139]

Box office

Spider-Man was first released in theaters on May 3, 2002 in 18 markets.[140] In the United States and Canada, it opened on 7,500 screens at 3,615 theaters and earned $114.8 million during its opening weekend, establishing a new opening weekend record.[j] The previous record holder was Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, which earned $90.3 million when it opened in November 2001.[k] Spider-Man also became the first film to gross $100 million in a single weekend (even when adjusting for inflation), and the first film to reach $100 million in three days.[145][146] Additionally, the film set a record for the highest three-day gross.[147] According to Rick Lyman of The New York Times, film industry executives expected Spider-Man to have a strong opening. Competition from other films was limited, and polls showed strong interest in Raimi's film from every age group. However, neither executives nor polling firms predicted that the film's earnings would exceed those of Sorcerer's Stone.[141] Upon release, Spider-Man became the number one film at the box office.[l]

Spider-Man earned $39.4 million on its opening day, an average of $10,901 per theater.[150] This opening-day gross was the all-time highest until 2004, when it was surpassed by the $40.4 million opening of Spider-Man 2.[151] During opening weekend, Spider-Man grossed an average of $31,769 per theater. According to Box Office Mojo, this was the all-time highest per-theater average for an "ultra-wide release."[143] On its second day of release, the film set a record for the highest earnings in a single day, with $43.6 million.[m] On its third day, Spider-Man earned $31.8 million, the highest gross at the time for a Sunday.[150][143] Within four days, the film had the biggest non-holiday Monday of all time with $11 million, which increased its total gross to $125.1 million.[153]

Spider-Man remained at the top of the box office in its second weekend, dropping 38% and grossing another $71.4 million[154] while averaging $19,756 per theater. At the time, this was the highest-grossing second weekend of any film.[154] Spider-Man reached the $200 million mark on its ninth day of release, also a record at the time.[154] This made it the fastest film to cross the $200 million mark, surpassing Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.[155] At the end of its second weekend, the film brought in a 10-day total of $223,040,031.[154] It quickly surpassed Ice Age to become the highest-grossing film of the year.[154] Spider-Man had crossed over 149 spots on the top-grossing film chart, landing in 29th place between Rush Hour 2 and Mrs. Doubtfire.[154]

The film dropped to the second position in its third weekend, behind Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, but still made $45,036,912, dropping only 37%, averaging $12,458 per theater, and bringing the 17-day tally to $285,573,668.[156] Its third weekend haul set the record for highest-grossing third weekend, which was first surpassed by Avatar (2009).[157] Spider-Man would beat another record that was previously held by The Phantom Menace, becoming the quickest film to hit $300 million in just 22 days.[158] It stayed at the second position in its fourth weekend, grossing $35,814,844 over the four-day Memorial Day frame, dropping only 21% while expanding to 3,876 theaters, averaging $9,240 over four days, and bringing the 25-day gross to $333,641,492.[159] Within 66 days, it was the fastest film to approach $400 million, tying its record with Titanic.[160] Both films held this record for two years before being surpassed by Shrek 2.[161]

At the box office, Spider-Man became 2002's highest-grossing film with $407,774,549 in the U.S. and Canada, defeating The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Attack of the Clones.[162] As of 2024, Spider-Man ranks as the 77th-highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada, not adjusted for inflation. The film also grossed $418,002,176 from its international markets, bringing its worldwide total to $825,802,095[163] making it 2002's third-highest-grossing film behind The Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the 58th-highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide.[164] Additionally, it was the highest-grossing Sony film of all time, beating out Men in Black.[165][166] Spider-Man also surpassed Batman to become the highest-grossing superhero film of all time.[165][167] The film sold an estimated 69,484,700 tickets in the US.[163] It held the record for most tickets sold by a comic book movie until The Dark Knight topped it in 2008. As of 2020, it is still the sixth highest grossing comic book movie of all time adjusted for inflation. Only Avengers: Infinity War, The Dark Knight, Black Panther, The Avengers and Avengers: Endgame have sold more tickets than Spider-Man.

Internationally, Spider-Man opened in 17 territories in its first week, earning a total of $13.3 million. It scored the second-highest opening in Iceland, Singapore and South Korea. Plus, Russia and Yugoslavia had the third best all time film opening.[168] Spider-Man would score the biggest opening in Switzerland with $1.4 million and 160,000 admissions from 106 screens, surpassing The World Is Not Enough. As for Germany, it had the strongest June opening and the third best debut of any movie, behind Attack of the Clones and Ice Age. Its opening screenings in France were a massive 10,645 admissions from 27 screens, beating out the French film Asterix & Obelix: Mission Cleopatra.[169] Additionally, it set the highest opening gross in Spain.[170] Meanwhile, Spider-Man would go on to unleash new opening records in the UK during the 2002 FIFA World Cup soccer game. The film made $13.9 million from 509 screens, making it the country's fifth biggest movie opening, trailing only behind Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, The Phantom Menace, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and Attack of the Clones. In addition, Spider-Man had the largest opening of any film in the UK with a BBFC certificate higher than a "PG" rating, staying ahead of Independence Day and Hannibal. Despite lunch matches, it still led the weekend box office to a bigger 110% week-to-week increase and a 130% year-on-year increase when Pearl Harbor led the chart during its third week.[171] It was the country's number one film for three weeks until it was displaced by Minority Report.[172] In India, the film was simultaneously released in English and three different languages across 250 screens, becoming the widest reach and return for a Hollywood title since The Mummy Returns in 2001. It was even Sony's first major release in the country since Godzilla in 1998.[173] The total number of international markets that generated grosses in excess of $10 million include Australia ($16.9 million), Brazil ($17.4 million), France, Algeria, Monaco, Morocco and Tunisia ($32.9 million), Germany ($30.7 million), Italy ($20.8 million), Japan ($56.2 million), Mexico ($31.2 million), South Korea ($16.98 million), Spain ($23.7 million), and the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($45.8 million).[174]

Spider-Man became the highest-grossing superhero film of all time at the time of its release, both domestically and worldwide while surpassing Batman.[165] Its domestic gross was eventually topped by The Dark Knight (2008). Its worldwide gross was first surpassed by Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The film also held the record as Sony's highest-grossing film domestically until 2018, when it was finally surpassed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($404.5 million).[175][176]

Home media

Spider-Man was released on VHS and DVD on November 1, 2002, in North America and Australia, and on November 25, 2002, in the United Kingdom by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.[177] It set a record for having the highest single-day DVD sales, surpassing Monsters, Inc. and selling over 7 million DVD copies on its first day of release.[178] The film would hold this record for a year until it was taken by Finding Nemo in 2003.[179] As of 2022, it has the single-day record for any live-action film.[180] In just a few days, the DVD release sold more than 11 million copies.[181] While the VHS release sold over 6.5 million copies, the DVD release went on to become one of the best-selling live-action DVD titles of all time with over 19.5 million copies being sold.[182][183] This two-disc DVD release comes in separate widescreen (1.85:1 aspect ratio) and fullscreen (1.33:1 aspect ratio) versions. Bonus features include commentaries, promotional material, behind-the-scenes featurettes, and other information on both the film and the comic books that inspired it.[184]

The film's American television rights (Fox, TBS/TNT) were sold for $60 million.[185] Related gross toy sales were $109 million.[185] Its American DVD revenue by July 2004 was $338.8 million.[185] Its American VHS revenue by July 2004 was $89.2 million.[185] As of 2006, the film has grossed a total revenue of $1.5 billion from box office and home video (sales and rentals), in addition a further $880 million from television (pay-per-view, broadcast TV and cable TV).[186]

In the United Kingdom, the film was watched by 700,000 viewers on subscription television channel Sky Movies 1 in 2004, making it the year's ninth most-watched film on subscription television.[187]

The film made its Blu-ray debut in 2007 as part of the Spider-Man Trilogy.[188] Just three years later, it was released as a separate Blu-ray on November 16, 2010.[189] This was followed by another release on July 5, 2011.[190] Spider-Man was also included in the Spider-Man Legacy Collection, which includes 5 Spider-Man films in a 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray collection, which was released on October 17, 2017.[191]

Raimi's Spider-Man trilogy was released on Disney+ on April 21, 2023.[192]

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 249 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.6/10. The website's consensus reads: "Not only does Spider-Man provide a good dose of web-swinging fun, it also has a heart, thanks to the combined charms of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire."[193] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[194] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[195]

The casting, mainly Maguire, Dafoe and Simmons, is often cited as one of the film's high points. Eric Harrison of the Houston Chronicle was initially skeptical of Maguire's casting, but later said it was difficult to imagine anyone else in the role.[196] Mike Clark of USA Today praised the casting as well.[197] In a positive review, Joe Morgenstern of The Wall Street Journal said, "Every action adventure needs a memorable villain, but no movie needs the strident intensity of Mr. Dafoe, who either has no interest in, or no grasp of, the sort of charmingly malign wit that Gene Hackman brought to Superman or Jack Nicholson to Batman."[198] Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly had mixed feelings about Maguire in the title role, writing: "Maguire, winning as he is, never quite gets the chance to bring the two sides of Spidey—the boy and the man, the romantic and the avenger—together."[199] Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter applauded the creativity of the opening credits and the upside-down kiss scene.[200]

LA Weekly's Manohla Dargis wrote, "It isn't that Spider-Man is inherently unsuited for live-action translation; it's just that he's not particularly interesting or, well, animated."[201] Giving the film two and a half stars out of four, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times criticized the scene in which Peter is given a choice between saving Mary Jane or a cable car full of children. Ebert said the visuals "could have given an impression of the enormous weights and tensions involved, but instead the scene seems more like a bloodless storyboard."[202] In a 2007 retrospective on the first two Spider-Man films, Richard George of IGN called the Green Goblin's costume "almost comically bad". He wrote of the Goblin's mask: "Not only is it not frightening, it prohibits expression."[203]

Entertainment Weekly put the upside-down kiss on its 2009 list of the best pop culture creations of the decade, saying: "There's a fine line between romantic and corny. And the rain-soaked smooch between Spider-Man and Mary Jane from 2002 tap-dances right on that line. The reason it works? Even if she suspects he's Peter Parker, she doesn't try to find out. And that's sexy."[204] In 2008, Empire magazine ranked Spider-Man 437th on its list of the 500 best films of all time.[205]

Accolades

The film won several awards ranging from Teen Choice Awards to the Saturn Awards, and was also nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Ed Novick), but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Chicago, respectively.[206][207] While only Danny Elfman brought home a Saturn Award, Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst were all nominated for their respective positions. It also took home the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture."[207] The film was nominated for Favorite Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to Austin Powers in Goldmember. Most notably, the upside down kissing scene won Best Kiss at the MTV Movie & TV Awards in 2003.

Sequels

Two sequels to Spider-Man were produced and directed by Raimi. Spider-Man 2 was released on June 30, 2004, while Spider-Man 3 was released on May 4, 2007. A spin-off animated series, Spider-Man: The New Animated Series, aired from July to September 2003. It was intended to serve as a continuation of the first film.[208]

Video game

A video game based on the film of the same name was released.[209] The game was developed by Treyarch (only for the home consoles) and published by Activision, and released in 2002 for Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox. The game has many scenes and villains that did not appear in the film. It was followed by Spider-Man 2 two years later to promote the release of the second film. In 2007, to promote the release of the third film, Spider-Man 3 was released. Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe were the only actors who reprised their roles from the film. Spider-Man: Friend or Foe was released in 2007, the games borrow the film characters, and it serves as non-canon plot of the film series.[210]

The critical reviews for the game were positive. By July 2006, the PlayStation 2 version of Spider-Man had sold 2.1 million copies and earned $74 million in the United States. Next Generation ranked it as the 15th highest-selling game launched for the PlayStation 2, Xbox or GameCube between January 2000 and July 2006 in that country. Combined sales of Spider-Man console games released in the 2000s reached 6 million units in the United States by July 2006.[211]

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