American actor Tobey Maguire stars in the upcoming film 'Spider-Man 3'. ?– Reuters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters):

The Spider-Man movies already are among the biggest movies ever and, with Spider-Man 3 opening in May, Sony Corp.'s Columbia Pictures is pulling out all the stops to make sure the films stay on top.

With a production cost of slightly more than US$250 million and with tens of millions more pumped into marketing, the movie about a comic book superhero who uses spider-like powers to catch crooks represents a huge financial risk. But offsetting risk is the movie series' wide popularity.

Home-grown hero

Spider-Man in 2002 and Spider-Man 2 in 2004 averaged more than US$800 million at global box offices and millions more in DVD and other sales. The films boosted profits at Sony.

"This really is our home-grown hero. The whole company gets behind it and embraces it," said Jeff Blake, vice-chairman of Sony Pictures Entertainment, the division that runs Columbia.

For many months, fans have seen theatre advertising, web promotions, billboards and other ads with the red-and-blue-suited Spider-Man (Maguire), his nemesis The New Goblin (James Franco) and love interest, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).

But the web of Spider-Man hype gets wider on April 16 with the first of a series of premieres starting in Tokyo. The movie's makers then head to London on April 23 and Rome, Berlin, Madrid, Moscow, Stockholm and New York on April 30 for 'Spider-Man Week in NYC'. The movie debuts globally on May 4.

But whether Spider-Man 3 can beat the US$822 million total global haul of the first film, or Spider-Man 2's US$783 million is a big question because sequels often fail to top originals.