Opening to Spider-Man 2002 DVD (Full Screen Version, Both Discs)

About

"Spider-Man, Spider-Man / Does whatever a spider can"

"Spider-Man" is the first film in the 2000's "Spider-Man" trilogy, based on the Marvel Comics character by Stan Lee (who served as an executive producer) and Steve Ditko.

The movie was directed by Sam Raimi, written by David Koepp, and starred Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Cliff Robertson, and Rosemary Harris.

Development on a "Spider-Man" movie began as early as 1975, with considered directors including Tobey Maguire, James Cameron, and Joseph Zito. However, it went into development hell for years, with Orion Pictures, The Cannon Group, Carolco Pictures, and MGM being potential distributors, until the film rights were gained by Sony in 1999, to be released under their Columbia banner.

That was when development on the movie started making significant progress. Many notable directors were considered to direct it, including Roland Emmerich, Ang Lee, Chris Columbis, Barry Sonnenfeld, Tim Burton, Michael Bay, Jan de Bont, M. Night Shyamalan, Tony Scott, and David Fincher, before they decided to bring in Sam Raimi.

The movie received positive reviews from critics and audiences, who praised the direction, story, performances, visual effects, action sequences, and Danny Elfman's music score (considered to be one of his best).

The movie was also a major box office success, grossing $825 million on a $139 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing superhero film at the time, as well as the third highest-grossing film of the year. It was also the sixth highest-grossing film ever at the time of its release.

The movie later spawned a trilogy, following it up with 2004's "Spider-Man 2" and 2007's "Spider-Man 3". A television series, titled "Spider-Man: The New Animated Series", which served as a non-canonical sequel to the first film, aired on MTV from July to September 2003 for 13 episodes. It was made available to watch on Disney+ in 2022, but was removed at the end of the following year.

Another two films set in a separate continuity would follow, starring Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, with the first film released in 2012 and the second released in 2014. A third film and spin-offs were considered for this continuity, but were all cancelled due to the mixed response for the second film.

An additional three films, set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, would be released from 2017 to 2021. The third of these, "Spider-Man: No Way Home", features Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield reprising their roles as their respective versions of Spider-Man.

An animated trilogy of films was also released, known as the Spider-Verse trilogy, starring a black character who also had a career as Spider-Man named Miles Morales. The first film was released in 2018, with the second released in 2023. A third film is currently in development, but has no official release date as of this post.

CRITICAL RESPONSE:

Archive

Internet Archive, in The VHS Vault

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Credit

Columbia Pictures

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