Asia loves Spidey.
"Spider Man 3" broke records around the region and even in markets where the pic's opening didn't topple records, nearly all the openings eclipsed the first two Spidey pics.
Japan, which opened Tuesday to coincide with Golden Week festivities, delivered the top "Spider-Man 3" number with $26.5 million at 822 -- 40% ahead of the mark held "The Matrix Reloaded."
In South Korea, "Spider-Man 3" was unstoppable with $18.3 million at 683 in six days, three times bigger than the record held by "The Host."
Australia and China both grossed $7.9 million with the Chinese launch setting a record for an American film launch, besting Sony's own "The Da Vinci Code." In China the film opened on a wide 503 traditional prints, topped up by 27 digital prints and a further four IMAX prints. With some multiplexes playing the pic on multiple screens, total Chinese locations were hust short of 600.
The mid-tier Asian markets all delivered records -- India with $4.7 million, the Philippines with $3.8 million, Thailand with $3.5 million, Singapore with $2.7 million and Malaysia with $2.4 million.
Taiwan topped $2 million and 14 other markets topped $1 million, with all-time best launches in Indonesia, Argentina, Colombia, Peru and the United Arab Emirates.
Jay Sands, senior VP for Sony Pictures Releasing Intl., pointed to two factors in making Spidey a must-see in every market: "The keys overseas were the spectacular creative campaign and the willingness of the cast and filmmakers to travel."
"Spider-Man 3" is already only $1.4 million short of matching "300" as the top foreign performer released in 2007. And it's grossed well over 50% of the final foreign grosses for 2002's "Spider-Man" ($403 million) and 2004's "Spider-Man 2" ($418 million).
The spectacular foreign returns for "Spider-Man 3" already account for more than 60% of the pic's worldwide total of $375 million, underlining the increasing importance of overseas biz for mega-budget tentpoles. Distribution execs stress that creating franchises like "Spider-Man" and BVI's "Pirates of the Caribbean" is crucial in foreign markets since audiences don't go to the movies as often as U.S. audiences do.
The socko Spidey biz raises the bar for upcoming tentpoles, mostly notably "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix." The third "Pirates" adventure launches in nine foreign markets on May 23, two days ahead of the domestic bow, while the fifth "Potter" pic goes day-and-date on the second weekend in July.
Until "Pirates" opens, however, "Spider-Man 3" will have clear sailing overseas during the next two weekends as rivals have opted to stick with holdover fare. Paramount's decided to wait until June and July to open "Shrek the Third" in most overseas markets to coincide with school vacations even though those start well after its May 18 domestic launch.
