Spider-Man 3 is the third installment to the Spider-Man movie series. The movie, released on May of 2007, was written and directed by acclaimed director Sam Raimi. The third installment of the popular superhero film stars Tobey Maguire, Kirstin Dunst, and James Franco, returning cast members from the previous Spider-Man installments. Thomas Haden Church and Topher Grace joined the cast playing Spider-Man's new enemies, Sandman and Venom, respectively.

Plot

The film begins with Peter Parker (Maguire) enjoying the rising popularity of Spider-Man while trying to hard to remain undiscovered. Mary Jane Watson (Dunst) meanwhile continues to find success as a Broadway actress. Harry Osborn (Franco) still mourns his father's recent death and vowed revenge.

The film introduced Flint Marko (Church), a small time crook who accidentally fell into a particle accelerator and then is transformed into Sandman with the ability to shape-shift at will. At the same time an alien symbiote enters into the Earth's atmosphere through a meteor and finds itself bonding into Peter and eventually to his Spider-Man costume. When the symbiote finds itself removed from Peter, it bonded with Eddie Brock (Grace) who is Peter's rival photographer at The Daily Bugle.

Peter as finds himself meeting Sandman on a festival held in honor of Spider-Man. Sandman robs an armored car where he met with Spider-Man for the first time and was able to overpower the superhero and escaped. Peter later on found out that the Sandman was the criminal who killed Peter's uncle, Ben Parker. Upon knowing this, Peter vowed revenge and awaited the next encounter with Sandman.

Meanwhile, the alien symbiote that bonded with Peter finds its way to his superhero costume where it was changed to black. Peter as Spider-Man also discovers that his powers were enhanced along with the change in the costume, not exactly knowing why. Peter's personality also underwent changes because of the alien symbiote's influence. This led to a souring relationship with Mary Jane who found solace with Peter's friend Harry.

With the alien symbiote further worsening Peter's relationships with people around him, most especially with a rival photographer Eddie (Grace), he realizes that the changes must be because of the puzzling change of his costume. He decided to get rid of it by pulling it off at a nearby church. The symbiote parted with its host when weakened by the sound of a church bell. But it eventually bonded with Brock who finds himself armed with superpowers and transformed into Venom.

Eventually Venom and Sandman meet and joined forces to get rid of Spider-Man. A battle ensues where Spider-Man almost loses to the two villains until the intervention of Harry as the New Goblin. The rescue allowed Spider-Man to defeat both villains but came at a cost as Harry died while helping the superhero.

Box Office Performance

Spider-Man 3 was released commercially on May 1, 2007. The film grossed over 59 million dollars on opening day in US theaters, grossing a record of 117 million dollars worldwide. Spider-Man 3 became the highest grossing film of 2007 in the Us with total earnings reaching over 336 million dollars. Worldwide gross for the movie stood at over 890 million dollars.