SUBMITTED BY pimpjoe_esb

May 2, 2007 — Variety reports that Sony's "Spider-Man 3" set records Tuesday in every one of the eight Asian territories in which it bowed. Pic opens in dozens of other territories in the next few days, culminating Friday in its domestic launch on 4,253 theaters, the widest North American opening of all time.

Pic launched Tuesday in more than a dozen key territories, including Japan, France, Germany, Italy and South Korea. Another eight go today, with 30 more on Thursday (including China, Australia and Russia) and an additional 30 on Friday (including the U.K. and India).

Euro markets should report their initial tallies today. In its opening day Tuesday, Sony estimated that the pic hit Y415 million ($3.47 million) in Japan, beating "Spider-Man 2's" Y410 million. The first "Spider" took in Y347 million in its first day in Japan in 2004.

In Korea, latest pic also beat out one-day marks for its predecessors, taking in 3.2 billion won ($3.44 million), Sony honcho Jeff Blake said.

In Hong Kong, Spidey saw the biggest opening day of all time, with $HK7.5 million ($958,984), besting previous record holder "Kung Fu Hustle."

Pic also drew the biggest ever opening day of any film in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines. In Taiwan, it saw the biggest weekday opening ever.

The list of domestic engagements could be tweaked by a few screens more or less but should comfortably beat the 4,163 locations in which DreamWorks bowed "Shrek 2" two years ago.

Sony launched "Spider-Man 2" at 4,152 in 2004.

The only other pics to have debuted in more than 4,000 locations are "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," "Madagascar," "Superman Returns," "Over the Hedge," "Mission: Impossible III" and "Shark Tale." All of those have been released since 2004, as Hollywood's race to put up massive opening numbers escalates.

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