Hero's welcome o'seas, too

May 07, 2007 "Spider-Man 3" easily outpaced its two predecessors by smashing the stanza with what Sony claims is "the international opening-weekend boxoffice record" with an estimated $227 million from 16,700 screens in 105 markets, thus solidifying the superhero series as the most commercially successful in movie history. The previous first-weekend boxoffice record holder, also from Sony, was last year's "The Da Vinci Code," which logged $154.7 million in its opening five days overseas. In the U.K., "Spider-Man" grossed an estimated $22.9 million from 1,357 screens, the third-biggest three-day opening ever in the key market.

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