With its Thursday midnight shows and pricy IMAX engagements, Spider-Man 3 is set for a major assault on the 3-day box office record of $135.6 million held by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.  In its quest to win back the 3-day box office crown that the franchise held from the opening of the first Spider-Man film in 2002 until the Pirates sequel stole it last summer, Spider-Man 3 will open in a record 4,252 locations topping the old record of 4,163 held by Shrek 2.  The key number (and the one the studios don't release) is how many screens will the wallcrawling webslinger occupy this weekend?  With last week's abysmal grosses and a near total lack of new competition, theater owners should be willing to put Spidey on well over 9,000 screens, it might possibly even eclipse Star Wars Episode III, which debuted on over 9,400 screens in North America in 2005.

Advance sales are running well ahead of those for the previous Spider-Man films (see 'Spider-Man 3 Advance Sales Strong') and even ahead of pre-buys for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest.  With Spidey 3's immense marketing push (see 'Spider-Man 3 Promo Partners Kick in $100 Million') plus all the magazine covers and talk show appearances everything appears to be set to make Spider-Man 3 as front-loaded a movie event as possible.  Many experts are expecting that the film's two week box office take (Spider-Man 3 basically has a free run at the box office until Shrek the Third opens on May 18th) will equal its gargantuan budget of $258 million.

Will Spider-Man 3 recapture the 3-day weekend box office record?  It certainly appears possible, if not at all certain.  With ticket price inflation, just attracting the same number of customers that the first Spider-Man film did on the first weekend in May of 2002, should get Spidey 3 close to the Pirates record.  With a big (if not necessarily record) opening assured, the real problem for Spider-Man 3 could be achieving the kind of word-of-mouth that gave the first two Spider-Man films such impressive 'legs.'  With three different villains and a more diffuse storyline, will the new film be as compelling as its predecessors?