Sometime next year, Sony andMarvelwill go into production on their newSpider-Manreboot, starringTom Hollandas Peter Parker, the third different incarnation of this beloved comic book character in the past 15 years. One of the reasonsSpider-Manwas rebooted in the first place was 2007’sSpider-Man 3, which was deemed a failure by many, despite taking in $890.8 million worldwide and scoring a 63% “Fresh” rating on Rotten Tomatoes. While promoting his new filmTruth, which opened in limited release last weekend,Topher Grace, who played the villainVenominSpider-Man 3, acknowledged that many fans weren’t happy with the sequel, although he had nothing but praise for directorSam Raimi.
“I know the movie did well for Sony, but I also know a lot of people weren’t happy with it. I thinkSamis so talented. I remember one time I was on ninth unit. (Laughs.) Ninth unit? It’s like he’s running a small country. This summer, there was a movie like that where people are just slamming a big studio movie. I would love to see anyone who’s slamming one of those movies try to fit inSam Raimi’s position. He was like the president of a small country - by the way, it had the gross national income of a small country, too. I have huge respect for him. I think, on a whole, he did such a fantastic job [on thattrilogy].”
Topher Grace’s statement comes several months afterSam Raimihimself admitted thatSpider-Man 3is “awful.” The director says he didn’t care about any of the characters, and the pressure to raise the stakes after the belovedSpider-Man 2helped lead to the sequel’s demise. The filmmaker believes he should have stuck with the characters' relationships and not try to “top the bar” in the sequel, which featured three different villains,Topher Grace’s Venom,Thomas Haden Church’s Sandman andJames Francoas the Green Goblin.
It’s worth noting thatSpider-Man 3’s $890.8 million worldwide gross was much higher thanThe Amazing Spider-Man($757.9 million) andThe Amazing Spider-Man 2($708.9 million). Ironically, its worldwidebox officetotal is the highest of the original trilogy, but its domestic take of $336.5 million was the lowest of that series. Given the immense fan base already in place through theSpider-Mancomics, the fact that none of the previous five movies have made over $1 billion worldwide is somewhat surprising.
WhileTopher Gracedoesn’t specifically mention the movie people were “slamming” this summer by name, he’s clearly referring to 20th Century Fox’sFantastic Four. Thatsuperhero rebootwas universally panned by critics (9% on Rotten Tomatoes) and failed at the box office as well, pulling in a paltry $56.1 million domestic and $166.6 million worldwide, from a $120 million budget. What do you think aboutTopher Grace’s statement regardingSpider-Man 3?
