Sony has announced the October 30th DVD release of the highest grossing film of the year so far, Spider-Man 3, which set an all-time three-day weekend record of $151 million (see 'Spidey 3 Obliterates Records, Competition'), and has earned over $334 million at the domestic box office.  Spider-Man 3 will be available in multiple formats including a single disc ($27.99) edition, a two-disc special edition ($36.95), a two-disc Blu-ray edition ($49.95) and a four-disk Blu-ray Spider-Man Trilogy ($98.95) that includes the two-disc Blu-ray edition of Spider-Man 3 plus single-disc versions of Spider-Man 1 and Spider-Man 2.

The Spider-Man 3 single disc comes complete with commentaries by director Sam Raimi and cast members Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Thomas Haden Church and Bryce David Howard, a blooper reel, photo galleries, and a Snow Patrol music video.  The two-disc Spider-Man Special Edition and the two-disc Blu-ray edition come with a second disc that contains six hours of bonus materials including 11 features with documentaries on the creation of each of the film's three villains (Sandman, the Green Goblin and Venom) as well as a trio features on the movie's most spectacular stunts.

What the two-disc Spider-Man 3 DVDs apparently lack is what fans often enjoy more than 'making-of' documentaries, namely a collection of deleted scenes.  Perhaps these deleted scenes don't exist or perhaps they will surface in some future DVD edition of the film.

While the various Spider-Man DVDs will undoubtedly be available at highly discounted prices in the big box and mass market retail outlets as well as online, the release of the DVD will like result in some additional interest in the character and sales of tie-in merchandise.  Hasbro chief Alfred J. Verrecchia told industry analysts that Hasbro expects the release of the Spider-Man 3 on DVD will stimulate additional sales of Spider-Man toys in Q4.