Weekend Box Office: Spider-Man 3 a surprise sleeper hit

By Scott Tobias | May 7, 2007 | 2:37pm

Aux Features Newswire

Despite bold, rock-solid predictions to the contrary, Spider-Man 3 appears well on its way toward recouping the largest budget ever allotted for a feature film. On its opening weekend, Sam Raimi's $275 million superhero opus raked in an astonishing $148 million domestic and $227 million when overseas figures are factored into the equation. That was just enough to nip the weekend's other wide release, the poker romance Lucky You, which made $2.5 million for sixth place on the wings of a robust $996 per-screen-average. It also bumped Disturbia off its three-week perch at the top, but the Shia LeBeouf thriller still came in second at $5.7 million and has steadily climbed its way to the $60 million mark.

In limited release, both the late actress/director Adrienne Shelly's Waitress and the anthology project Paris Je'Taime performed well in a handful of theaters, drawing $23,000 and $19,000 per-screen-averages respectively. And a tip of the hat to The Lives Of Others, which has quietly been an enormous success on the arthouse circuit with nearly $10 million over a months-long stay at arthouses across the country.