Spider-Man (2002 film)

In the early 1980s, Marvel Comics was in negotiations with film producers to bring their flagship character Spider-Man to the big screen. Producer Roger Corman was the first to hold an option on the Spider-Man property and began to develop the film at Orion Pictures. Spider-Man co-creator Stan Lee was brought on to write a screenplay which featured Cold War themes and Doctor Octopus as the primary antagonist. The project did not come into fruition following budgetary disputes between Corman and Lee.[41] The film rights were then acquired by Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus of The Cannon Group for $225,000.[42] The two were not familiar with the character's background and mistook Spider-Man for being similar to a werewolf-like character. Leslie Stevens, creator of The Outer Limits, was hired to write a screenplay based on this concept. Stevens' script featured Peter Parker as an ID-badge photographer who becomes subject to a mad scientist's experiment which transforms him into a human tarantula. Tobe Hooper, who was preparing to shoot The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and Invaders from Mars for Cannon, signed on to direct.[43] Stan Lee hated the horror route the studio was taking with the character and demanded that a new script be written that was closer to the source material.

By 1985, a new script was being written by Ted Newsome and John Brancato. In this version, Peter Parker receives his spider-like abilities from a cyclotron experiment. Doctor Octopus served as the antagonist and was written as Parker's mentor turned enemy. Barney Cohen was brought in to do a rewrite which added humor, additional action scenes, and a supporting villain.[44] Cannon hired Joseph Zito to direct the film having previously directed the commercially successful Invasion U.S.A. for the studio. For the role of Peter Parker/Spider-Man, the studio considered Tom Cruise while Zito was interested in casting actor and stuntman Scott Leva who had previously done promotional appearances as Spider-Man for Marvel.[45] Bob Hoskins was considered for Doctor Octopus while Lauren Bacall and Katharine Hepburn were considered for Aunt May. Stan Lee expressed his desire to play J. Jonah Jameson in the film. The project was tentatively titled Spider-Man: The Movie and was budgeted between $15-20 million. Following the critical and financial failure of Superman IV: The Quest for Peace and Masters of the Universe which were produced by Cannon, the budget for Spider-Man: The Movie was cut to $7 million. Joseph Zito was unwilling to compromise and stepped down as director. He was replaced by Albert Pyun who was willing to make the film at a lower budget. The project was cancelled following Cannon's acquisition by Pathé and Golan's departure from the studio.[46]

Golan extended his option on Spider-Man during his tenure as CEO of 21st Century Film Corporation. By 1989, Golan attempted to revive the project using the original script, budget, and storyboards developed at Cannon. In order to receive production funds, Golan sold the television rights to Viacom, home video rights to Columbia Pictures, and theatrical rights to Carolco Pictures[47] where James Cameron became attached to write and direct the film. Cameron had previously met with Stan Lee to discuss a possible X-Men film until Lee convinced Cameron that he would be a good choice to direct a Spider-Man film.[48] James Cameron submitted a treatment to Carolco in 1993.[49] which served as a darker, more adult take on the character's mythos. In addition to featuring the Spider-Mans origin story, it also included variations on the villains Electro and Sandman. Electro was reimagined as a megalomaniacal businessman named Carlton Strand while Sandman was written as Strand's personal bodyguard named Boyd. Cameron's treatment also featured heavy profanity and a sex scene between Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson atop the Brooklyn Bridge. Carolco had set a $50 million budget for Spider-Man but progress would be stalled when Golan sued Carolco for attempting to make the film without his involvement.[50] Cameron had recently completed True Lies for 20th Century Fox as part of a production deal with the studio. Fox attempted to acquire the film rights to Spider-Man for Cameron but this proved unsuccessful. At this point, James Cameron had abandoned the project and began work on Titanic.[51] He would reveal in a 1997 interview on The Howard Stern Show that he had Titanic star Leonardo DiCaprio in mind for the lead role.[52] In 1995, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer acquired 21st Century Film Corporation which had given them access to the previous Spider-Man scripts. MGM would also then Viacom, Sony Pictures, and Marvel, who they accused of fraud in the original deal with Cannon. The following year, 21st Century, Carolco, and Marvel would all file for bankruptcy.[53] Marvel would emerge from bankruptcy in 1998 and declare that Menahem Golan's option had expired and that the rights had reverted back to them. Marvel would then sell the film rights to Sony Pictures Entertainment, Columbia Pictures' parent company for $7 million.[54]

In April 1999, although Sony Pictures optioned from MGM all preceding script versions of a Spider-Man film, it only exercised the options on "the Cameron material", which contractually included a multi-author screenplay and a forty-five-page "scriptment" credited only to James Cameron. The studio announced they were not hiring Cameron himself to direct the film nor would they be using his script.[55] The studio lined up Roland Emmerich, Tony Scott, Chris Columbus, Ang Lee, David Fincher, Jan de Bont and M. Night Shyamalan as potential directors. Fincher did not want to depict the origin story, pitching the film as being based on The Night Gwen Stacy Died storyline, but the studio disagreed.[16] Sam Raimi was attached to direct in January 2000,[56] for a summer 2001 release.[57] He had been a fan of the comic book during his youth, and his passion for Spider-Man earned him the job.[58]

Cameron's work became the basis of David Koepp's first draft screenplay, often word for word.[59] Cameron's versions of the Marvel villains Electro and Sandman remained the antagonists. Koepp's rewrite substituted the Green Goblin as the main antagonist and added Doctor Octopus as the secondary antagonist.[60] Raimi felt the Green Goblin and the surrogate father-son theme between Norman Osborn and Peter Parker would be more interesting, thus, he dropped Doctor Octopus from the film.[61] In June, Columbia hired Scott Rosenberg to rewrite Koepp's material. Remaining a constant in all the rewrites was the "organic webshooter" idea from the Cameron "scriptment".[62] Raimi felt he would stretch the audience's suspension of disbelief too far to have Parker invent mechanical webshooters.[13]

Rosenberg removed Doctor Octopus and created several new action sequences.[63] Raimi felt adding a third origin story would make the film too complex. Sequences removed from the final film had Spider-Man protecting Fargas, the wheelchair-using Oscorp executive, from the Goblin, and Spider-Man defusing a hostage situation on a train.[16] As production neared, producer Laura Ziskin hired award-winning writer Alvin Sargent, to polish the dialogue, primarily between Parker and Mary Jane.[64] Columbia gave the Writers Guild of America a list of four writers as contributors to the final Spider-Man script: Rosenberg, Sargent and James Cameron, all three of whom voluntarily relinquished credit to the fourth, Koepp.[59]

With Spider-Man cast, filming was set to begin November 2000 in New York City and on Sony soundstages. The film was set for release a year later,[11] but when the film was postponed to be released on May 3, 2002,[65] filming officially began on January 8, 2001[64] in Culver City, California. After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, certain sequences were re-filmed, and certain images of the Twin Towers were digitally erased from the film.[66][67] Sony's Stage 29 was used for Parker's Forest Hills home, and Stage 27 was used for the wrestling sequence where Parker takes on Bonesaw McGraw (Randy Savage). Stage 27 was also used for the complex Times Square sequence where Spider-Man and the Goblin battle for the first time, where a three-story set with a breakaway balcony piece was built. The scene also required shooting in Downey, California.[68] On March 6,[69] 45-year-old construction worker Tim Holcombe was killed when a forklift modified as a construction crane crashed into a construction basket that he was in. The following court case led to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health to fine Sony $58,805.[70]

In Los Angeles, locations included the Natural History Museum (for the Columbia University lab where Parker is bitten and receives his powers), the Pacific Electricity Building (the Daily Bugle offices) and Greystone Mansion (for the interiors of Norman Osborn's home). In April, 4 of the Spider-Man costumes were stolen, and Sony put up a $25,000 reward for their return.[71] They were recovered after 18 months and a former movie studio security guard and an accomplice were arrested.[72] Production moved to New York City for two weeks, taking in locations such as the Queensboro Bridge, the exteriors of Columbia University's Low Memorial Library and the New York Public Library, and a rooftop garden in the Rockefeller Center.[68] The crew returned to Los Angeles where production and filming ended in June. The Flatiron Building was used for the Daily Bugle.[64]

The original animatronic headgear for the Green Goblin was created by Amalgamated Dynamics

Before settling on the look used in the film, the original headgear created for the Green Goblin was an animatronic mask created by Amalgamated Dynamics. One concept costume designer James Acheson became fond of was the idea of having a red emblem over a black costume. Another, which would eventually lead to the final product, featured an enlarged logo on the chest and red stripes going down the sides of the legs.[16] To create Spider-Man's costume, Maguire was fitted for the skintight suit, being covered with layers of substance to create the suit's shape.[73] It was designed as a single piece, including the mask. A hard shell was worn underneath the mask to make the shape of the head look better and to keep the mask tight while keeping the wearer comfortable. For scenes where he would take his mask off, there was an alternate suit where the mask was a separate piece. The webbing, which accented the costume, was cut by computer. The mask eye lenses were designed to have a mirror look.[74]

Visual effects supervisor John Dykstra was hired to produce the film's visual effects in May 2000.[75] He convinced Raimi to make many of the stunts computer-generated, as they would have been physically impossible. Raimi had used more traditional special effects in his previous films and learned a lot about using computers during production.[58] Raimi worked hard to plan all the sequences of Spider-Man swinging from buildings, which he described as, "ballet in the sky." The complexity of such sequences meant the budget rose from an initially planned $70 million to around $100 million.[12] Shots were made more complicated because of the main characters' individual color schemes, so Spider-Man and the Green Goblin had to be shot separately for effects shots: Spider-Man was shot in front of a greenscreen, while the Green Goblin was shot against bluescreen. Shooting them together would have resulted in one character being erased from a shot.[16]

Dykstra said the biggest difficulty of creating Spider-Man was that as the character was masked, it immediately lost a lot of characterization. Without the context of eyes or mouth, a lot of body language had to be put in so that there would be emotional content. Raimi wanted to convey the essence of Spider-Man as being, "the transition that occurs between him being a young man going through puberty and being a superhero." Dykstra said his crew of animators had never reached such a level of sophistication to give subtle hints of still making Spider-Man feel like a human being.[76] When two studio executives were shown shots of the computer generated character, they believed it was actually Maguire performing stunts.[16] In addition, Dykstra's crew had to composite areas of New York City and replaced every car in shots with digital models. Raimi did not want it to feel entirely like animation, so none of the shots were 100% computer-generated.[77]

Original Spider-Man teaser poster, which was recalled from theatres following 9/11 (the World Trade Center is reflected in Spider-Man's eyes)

After the terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001, Sony had to recall teaser posters which showed a close-up of Spider-Man's head with the New York skyline (including, prominently, the World Trade Center towers) reflected in his eyes. The film's original teaser trailer, released in 2001, featured a mini-film plot involving a group of bank robbers escaping in a Eurocopter AS355 Twin Squirrel helicopter, which gets caught from behind and propelled backward into what at first appears to be a net, then is shown to be a gigantic spider web spun between the World Trade Center towers. The trailer was attached to theatrical screenings of Jurassic Park III, American Pie 2, and Planet of the Apes. According to Sony, the trailer did not contain any actual footage from the film itself.[78] The trailer and poster both were pulled after the events of the attacks, but can be found online.[79] A new trailer deemed acceptable by Sony Pictures was later released online on December 15, 2001.[80] Raimi later stated that the scene was, in fact, originally in the film but removed due to the recency of the attacks.[81] The World Trade Center was later reinserted in the Blu-ray edition and can be seen throughout the film, particularly in Spider-Man's eyes during the origin scene and the final swing.[82]

Before the film's British theatrical release in June 2002, the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC) gave the film a "12" certificate. Due to Spider-Man's popularity with younger children, this prompted much controversy. The BBFC defended its decision, arguing that the film could have been given a "15". Despite this, North Norfolk and Breckland District Councils, in East Anglia, changed it to a "PG", and Tameside council, Manchester, denoted it a "PG-12". The U.S. rated it "PG-13"[83] for "stylized violence and action". In late August, the BBFC relaxed its policy to "12A", leading Sony to re-release the film.[84][85]

Spider-Man was released on DVD and VHS on November 1, 2002 in the US, the UK and Australia on November 25, 2002.[86] A Blu-ray release was followed on July 5, 2011.[87] Spider-Man was also included in the Spider-Man Legacy Collection, which includes 5 Spider-Man films in a 4K UHD Blu-ray collection, which was released on October 17, 2017.[88]

The film's American television rights (Fox, TBS/TNT) were sold for $60 million.[89] Related gross toy sales were $109 million.[89] Its American DVD revenue by July 2004 was $338.8 million.[89] Its American VHS revenue by July 2004 was $89.2 million.[89] As of 2006, the film has grossed a total revenue of $1.5 billion from box office and home video (sales and rentals), in addition a further $880 million from television (pay-per-view, broadcast TV and cable TV).[90]

Spider-Man became the first film to pass the $100,000,000 mark in a single weekend, even when adjusting for inflation, with its $114,844,116[91] mark establishing a new opening weekend record.[92][93] The gross surpassed the previous record holder's Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone $90,000,000 opening; on this, Rick Lyman of The New York Times wrote "while industry executives had expected a strong opening for the film because there was little competition in the marketplace and prerelease polling indicated intense interest from all age groups, no one predicted that Spider-Man would surpass the Harry Potter record."[93]

The film also set a record for crossing the $100,000,000 milestone in 3 days, at the time being the fastest any film had reached the mark.[94] This opening weekend haul had an average of $31,769 per theater, which at the time, Box Office Mojo reported as being "the highest per theater average ever for an ultra-wide release."[92] The film's three-day record was surpassed by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest four years later.[95] The $114.8 million opening weekend was the highest at the North America box office film for a non-sequel, until it was surpassed eight years later by Alice in Wonderland.[96]

With the release in the United States and Canada on May 3, 2002, on 7,500 screens at 3,615 theaters,[93] the film earned $39,406,872 on its opening day, averaging $10,901 per theater.[97] This was the highest opening day at the time until it was surpassed by its sequel Spider-Man 2's $40.4 million haul in 2004.[98] Spider-Man also set an all-time record for the highest earnings in a single day with $43,622,264 on its second day of release,[92][97] a record later surpassed by Shrek 2 in 2004.[99] On the Sunday during its opening weekend, the film earned an additional $31,814,980,[97] the highest gross a film took in on a Sunday, at the time.[92]

The film stayed at the top position in its second weekend, dropping only 38% and grossing another $71,417,527,[100] while averaging $19,755.89 per theater. At the time, this was the highest-grossing second weekend of any film.[100] During its second weekend, the film crossed the $200 million mark on its ninth day of release, also a record at the time.[100] At the end of its second weekend, the film brought in a 10-day total of $223,040,031.[100]

The film dropped to the second position in its third weekend, behind Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, but still made $45,036,912, dropping only 37%, averaging $12,458 per theater, and bringing the 17-day tally to $285,573,668.[101] Its third weekend haul set the record for highest-grossing third weekend, which was first surpassed by Avatar (2009).[102] It stayed at the second position in its fourth weekend, grossing $35,814,844 over the four-day Memorial Day frame, dropping only 21% while expanding to 3,876 theaters, averaging $9,240 over four days, and bringing the 25-day gross to $333,641,492.[103] In the box office, Spider-Man became 2002's highest-grossing film with $403,706,375 in the U.S. and Canada, defeating The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones.[104]

Spider-Man currently ranks as the 32nd-highest-grossing film of all time in the U.S. and Canada, not adjusted for inflation. The film also grossed $418,002,176 from its international markets, bringing its worldwide total to $821,708,551,[105] making it 2002's third-highest-grossing film behind The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the 58th-highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide.[106] The film sold an estimated 69,484,700 tickets in the US.[105] It held the record for most tickets sold by a comic book movie until The Dark Knight topped it in 2008. It is still the 5th highest grossing comic book movie of all time adjusted for inflation. Only Avengers: Infinity War, The Dark Knight, Black Panther and The Avengers have sold more tickets than Spider-Man. Spider-Man was the highest-grossing superhero origin film, a record it held for 15 years until it was surpassed by Wonder Woman (2017).[107] It is the eighth-highest-grossing superhero film, as well as eighth-highest-grossing comic book adaptation in general.[108][109]

International markets which generated grosses in excess of $10 million include Australia ($16.9 million), Brazil ($17.4 million), France, Algeria, Monaco, Morocco and Tunisia ($32.9 million), Germany ($30.7 million), Italy ($20.8 million), Japan ($56.2 million), Mexico ($31.2 million), South Korea ($16.98 million), Spain ($23.7 million), and the United Kingdom, Ireland and Malta ($45.8 million).[110]

Spider-Man became the highest-grossing superhero film of all time at the time of its release, both domestically and worldwide. Its domestic gross was eventually topped by The Dark Knight (2008). Its worldwide gross was first surpassed by Spider-Man 3 (2007).

The film also held the record as Sony's highest-grossing film domestically until 2018, when it was finally surpassed by Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle ($404.5 million).[111]

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 90% approval rating based on 245 reviews, with an average rating of 7.63/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Not only does Spider-Man provide a good dose of web-swinging fun, it also has a heart, thanks to the combined charms of director Sam Raimi and star Tobey Maguire."[112] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100 based on 38 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[113] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[114]

The casting, mainly Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe and J. K. Simmons, is often cited as one of the film's high points. Eric Harrison, of the Houston Chronicle, was initially skeptical of the casting of Maguire, but after seeing the film he stated, "it becomes difficult to imagine anyone else in the role."[115] USA Today critic Mike Clark believed the casting rivaled that of Christopher Reeve as 1978's Superman.[116] Owen Gleiberman, of Entertainment Weekly, had mixed feelings about the casting, particularly Tobey Maguire. "Maguire, winning as he is, never quite gets the chance to bring the two sides of Spidey—the boy and the man, the romantic and the avenger—together."[117] The Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt thought: "the filmmakers' imaginations work in overdrive from the clever design of the cobwebby opening credits and Spider-Man and M.J.'s upside down kiss—after one of his many rescues of her—to a finale that leaves character relationships open ended for future adventures."[118]

LA Weekly's Manohla Dargis wrote, "It isn't that Spider-Man is inherently unsuited for live-action translation; it's just that he's not particularly interesting or, well, animated."[119] Giving it 2.5/4 stars, Roger Ebert felt the film lacked a decent action element: "Consider the scene where Spider-Man is given a cruel choice between saving Mary Jane or a cable car full of school kids. He tries to save both, so that everyone dangles from webbing that seems about to pull loose. The visuals here could have given an impression of the enormous weights and tensions involved, but instead the scene seems more like a bloodless storyboard of the idea."[120] Stylistically, there was heavy criticism of the Green Goblin's costume, which led IGN's Richard George to comment years later: "We're not saying the comic book costume is exactly thrilling, but the Goblin armor (the helmet in particular) from Spider-Man is almost comically bad... Not only is it not frightening, it prohibits expression."[121]

Entertainment Weekly put "the kiss in Spider-Man" on its end-of-the-decade "best-of" list, saying: "There's a fine line between romantic and corny. And the rain-soaked smooch between Spider-Man and Mary Jane from 2002 tap-dances right on that line. The reason it works? Even if she suspects he's Peter Parker, she doesn't try to find out. And that's sexy."[122]

Empire magazine ranked Spider-Man 437 in its 500 Greatest Movies of All Time list in 2008.[123]

The film won several awards ranging from Teen Choice Awards to the Saturn Awards, and was also nominated for two Academy Awards (Best Visual Effects and Best Sound (Kevin O'Connell, Greg P. Russell and Ed Novick), but lost to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and Chicago, respectively.[124][125] While only Danny Elfman brought home a Saturn Award, Raimi, Maguire, and Dunst were all nominated for their respective positions. It also took home the People's Choice Award for "Favorite Motion Picture."[125] The film was nominated for Favorite Movie at the Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards, but lost to Austin Powers in Goldmember.