"Spider-Man"

summer box office's winner

With the record $115 million weekend debut of "Spider-Man" fresh in movie minds, Hollywood's studios are wondering just how big the summer box office can be and which studio will be No. 1 when the curtain falls?

Those are not easy questions to answer because Hollywood's idea of summer, this year, is four weeks ahead of most everyone else and a few sleeper hits always come out of nowhere.

But the question is pressing because the summer is the year's biggest season, accounting for 30 to 40 percent of the year's total box office.

One thing is certain: business ahead looks very bullish due to more fan interest, higher average ticket prices and the number of high-profile films in theaters, observers said.

The studio with the most at stake appears to be Sony Corp (news - web sites). division Sony Pictures Entertainment, whose movie unit has franchises like "Men in Black II" and "Stuart Little 2," as well as big stars like Adam Sandler in "Mr. Deeds" to promote.

Last summer the movie season kicked off with "The Mummy Returns" in early May. From then until the Labor Day holiday in September, the summer box office totaled $3.4 billion. The total box office for all of 2001 reached just under $8.4 billion.

Along with the box office boom, optimism stems from the number of "franchise" films like "Spider-Man" or last Fall's "Harry Potter" or "Lord of the Rings" around which the studios build promotional campaigns that boost merchandise sales, spawn new movies or TV shows and draw more people to theaters.

New Line, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc., has a big summer ahead, too, with its own franchise film, "Austin Powers in Goldmember." Predecessor "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me" took in $310 million worldwide in 1999.

AOL's other movie unit, Warner Bros., in June launches what it hopes will be a new franchise in "Scooby-Doo," based on the 1970s cartoons featuring four ghost chasers and their dog.

But it's really Sony and its Columbia Pictures movie unit that Hollywood watchers think has the most riding on high-profile films and high-profile stars. Fortunately for Sony, it is off to a record-breaking start with "Spider-Man."

Spider-Man
Based on the legendary flagship character of Marvel comics, this is the story of Peter Parker, a student living with his Aunt May and Uncle Ben after the death of his parents when he was very young. He's an avid student with a much-less-than-stellar social life and a knack for bad luck. When a freak accident miraculously grants him incredible spider-like abilities, in effect, it makes him into the amazing Spider-Man. Peter will find that there's a thin line between an ordinary man and an extraordinary hero; and he'll have to be the one to cross it.

Cast and Credits

Starring: Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, Willem Dafoe, James Franco, J.K. Simmons

Directed by: Sam Raimi

Produced by: Grant Curtis, Ian Bryce, Laura Ziskin

Written by: Alvin Sargent, David Koepp, Sam Raimi, Scott Rosenberg, Neil Ruttenberg

Distributor: Columbia Tristar