So what does this mean? Well, director Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst are probably already on the set of the sequel! Just kidding, but Sony probably wants to get them going on the second installment as fast as possible. And why introduce only one or two new villains? With the money that this movie will make, they can spend what they want to make Spidey fight ten villains at once. They will have money for the special effects too.

I can also imagine that studio executives were on the phone as soon as results came out, calling around to find any script with a comic book super hero. Yes, with the success of Spider-Man expect many more comic book adaptations making it to the big screen. The Hulk can already expect a huge buzz, thanks to millions of people seeing the teaser trailer for it before Spider-Man. The Hulk will be in theaters for summer, 2003. Ben Affleck is working on Daredevil and several other comic book to silver screen adaptations are in progress. Now they are all just going to be put on the fast track.

There have been squabbles back and forth over the internet (including on LMI Movie Talk) about the potential of Spider-Man. Many have said that this movie will not do as good as some expect. It turns out that it's doing better than even the most die hard fans had expected. I had one of the highest predictions for the movie for opening weekend ($85 million), but even that is going to fall way below the final figure.

I can understand why some people thought that the movie would open with under $70 million for the weekend. After all, the biggest opening weekend for a comic book movie was X-Men with $54 million. That movie made around $20 million on its opening day. Spider-Man doubled that on its first day in release! Comic book flicks sometimes suffers huge declines on Saturdays, as was the case with X-Men. But with Spider-Man making so much on the first day makes me wonder how many people couldn't see it because it was sold out. All those moviegoers are probably going to try again today to get in. Over $40 million is still highly unlikely on its second day but it probably won't make less than $35 million on Saturday.

So, is this movie over-hyped? Doesn't seem so anymore, now does it? We can all understand now why several companies fought over the rights to the man in red and blue tights; everyone knew that the potential was there for huge returns at the box office, just no one thought that it would be this big!

And why did this movie make so much on opening day? Well, when I went to see it there were people of all ages present. It wasn't just teenagers and big Spider-Man fans. I was kind of surprised to see entire families present at the movie. This little boy sitting behind me with his family talked excitedly throughout the movie. "Here comes Spider-Man!" he yelled happily at one time. Another time he screamed in horror: "Look out! It's the Green Goblin!" And I think that people of all ages look on in a gleeful daze, yelling inside their minds in excitement. The little boy didn't bother me, but he just made me feel more excited about the movie. Also, Spider-Man covers many generations of fans. X-Men might be a higher selling comic book than Spider-Man, but Spidey has been a comic book for decades, with fans between the ages of teens to people over their fifties.

So what can Spider-Man expect in the rest of its theater run? Well, if the percentage drops are similar to the usual comic book movie, it can expect to make around $300 million. X-Men earned three times its opening weekend. If Spider-Man did the same it should cross the $300 million mark. Everyone is talking about how Spider-Man will do great but that it will fade away quickly due to Attack of the Clones opening two weeks later. AOTC now has a huge task ahead of it, as it goes up against one of the biggest movies of all time. But if Spider-Man can open with over $100 million, then AOTC can surely open with over $125 million in its three day weekend.

Spider-Man can also expect to have good word of mouth. The CinemaScores for opening night were extremely good. Also, I believe that Spider-Man is one of the better comic book adaptations. Don't get mad at me fans if you disagree, but I think that Raimi made Spider-Man exactly the way that it should have been made; this is exactly what I had hoped for in a Spider-Man movie. Many adaptations are a little disappointing but this one was right on the money.

There have also been discussions about which movies will be the top ten grossing movies of the year. Everyone has Spider-Man in there, but the question should now be, where will Spider-Man rank in the top ten of all time? My overall prediction for Spider-Man was that it will end with $252 million, beating the comic book record held by Batman by $1 million. Well, Spider-Man only needs to make 2.5 times this opening weekend to reach that mark. It could be the first comic book to silver screen adaptation to make over $300 million!

Spider-Man and AOTC will together make over $500 million for the month of May. What a 1-2 punch to start this summer season!