According to Variety 'Spider-Man is about to become a musical.'  Though Marvel has not confirmed the story, Variety maintains that Neil Jordan (director of The Crying Game) will write the book for the musical with Bono and the Edge of U2 performing the songwriting chores and Julie Taymor, who helmed the hugely popular stage adaptation of The Lion King, directing and Tony Adams (Victor/Victoria) producing.

Meanwhile Spider-Man 2 became the fastest film ever to earn $200 million at the domestic box office, performing the feat in just 8 days, one day faster than the original Spider-Man film.  Spider-Man 2 also set the record for opening week domestic box office total by amassing a total of $192 in its first seven days of release.  The film will also debut worldwide in the mega-screen IMAX format on July 23 for fans who want a truly overwhelming experience.

On the licensed merchandise front, Activision reports that it has shipped 2 million units of its Spider-Man 2 video game, which is available in Playstation 2, X-Box, and GameCube, GameBoy, and PC versions.

As is perversely typical in the wake of Marvel's box office successes, the company's share price slid 6% on Tuesday and an additional 5% on Wednesday, with Wall Street wondering if Marvel's 2005 offerings like Elektra, Iron Man, and the Fantastic Four will be able to replicate Spidey's success.  As Variety put it, 'Despite eight successful studio releases since 1998, Marvel struggles to assure investors that its character bench is deep enough to grow the business over the long haul and beyond its best-known crime fighters.' 

Maybe if Marvel can exploit Spider-Man in enough venues (like the aforementioned musical), it won't matter if Dazzler, Iron Fist or Namor can't find big time success on the silver screen.