Film review

Spider-Man snares box  
office  records

The eagerly-awaited Spider-Man film has broken cinema box office  records in its 
opening weekend, beating previous holder Harry Potter. 
The live action adaptation of the   comic-book hero's  exploits  has  taken  $114m 
(£77.57m) in its first three days in the US, according to studio estimates.
Columbia Pictures, the studio behind the movie, said Spider-Man had beaten both 
single day and weekend records of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.
The  first  instalment  of  the wizarding tale took $90.3m (£61.4m) in its first  three 
days when it opened in America in November 2001.
Spider-Man  stars  Tobey  Maguire  as  student  Peter Parker who gets bitten by a 
radioactive spider and transformed into the webbed superhero.
Kirsten Dunst  plays his love interest  Mary  Jane Watson and Willem Dafoe is   his 
arch-enemy the Green Goblin.

Equal split
The  comic-book  character  first  appeared  in 1962,  and  creator  Stan  Lee  is  still 
working at the age of 79, as chairman emeritus of Marvel Comics.
Columbia marketing executive Jeff Blake said the audience  over  the weekend had 
been evenly split  between males and females with all ages interested in seeing the 
superhero on the big screen.
Spider-Man  took  $43.7m (£29.7m) on Saturday,  beating  Harry Potter's single  day 
record of $33.5m (£22.8m).
Harry  Potter  and  the Sorcerer's Stone, as  it  is  known in  the US, has so far taken 
$317.3m  (£215.9)  since  release  but  it  still has  a long  way  to go to beat  Titanic's 
box office record of $600m (£408m).

Spider-Man opens in the UK on 14 June.
It will  face  stiff  competition  for  popularity from Star Wars:  Wars  Episode II - Attack 
of the Clones which is released worldwide on 16 May.

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