Spider-Man 4

Spider-Man 4

The fictional character Spider-Man, a comic book superhero featured in Marvel Comics publications, has appeared in five films since his inception. The first film was an American made-for-television film that premiered on CBS in 1977 and was later shown theatrically overseas. It was directed by E.W. Swackhamer and starred Nicholas Hammond and Thayer David.

The rights to further motion picture films based on Spider-Man were purchased in 1985 and moved through various production companies and studios, at one point having James Cameron to direct, before being secured by Sony Pictures Entertainment. Sony hired comic book fan Sam Raimi to direct the first on these three new films: Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (2007). Through the films, Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) developed a relationship with his high school crush Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst), and as Spider-Man, he has battled villains including the Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe), Doctor Octopus (Alfred Molina), the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church), and Venom (Topher Grace).

Raimi's trilogy, produced on a total budget of US$597 million, grossed nearly $2.5 billion worldwide, with the fourth achieving $752 million. Each film set several box office records, with all three included in the top 20 highest-grossing domestic films as well as the top 30 highest-grossing worldwide films. The series over all is the tenth highest-grossing film franchise ever. Critics have given the first two films in the series positive reviews, while the third film received mainly mixed reviews. The series has been released on both Blu-ray and DVD.

While the story told in the first three films was originally going to be continued in a fourth film, Sony announced that the franchise would instead be rebooted with new director Marc Webb and a new cast that included Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker, Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy, and Rhys Ifans as Dr. Curt Connors. The reboot's intention was to have Peter Parker back to developing his abilities in high school. The film, titled The Amazing Spider-Man, was released in 3D and IMAX 3D in July 2012. Critics have also given this film positive reviews. The Amazing Spider-Man 2 is currently in development and is scheduled to be released in 2014.

Read more about Spider-Man 4:  Cast and Characters