2002 Summer Hit Brought the Fans, Broke Records and 'Redefined' a Genre

If the box office had a runway, The Devil Wears Prada 2 has been strutting it all weekend long.

The highly anticipated sequel is performing above expectations, bringing in $77 million in the U.S. and surpassing the projected $73 million, according to Deadline.

Exactly 24 years ago, meanwhile, another high-profile movie had hit theaters with impressive numbers to follow…

On May 3, 2022, the very first live-action Spider-Man film was released to both critical and commercial acclaim. Starring Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and other big names, the groundbreaking superhero flick set box-office records thanks to all the buzz and Marvel fans who were ready to feast their eyes on the visually stunning end result.

Directed by Sam Raimi, Spider-Man was the first movie to ever surpass $100 million in its opening weekend and became the highest-grossing superhero movie at the time, in addition to other impressive statistics.

Critics also raved about the movie, which holds an impressive 90% average rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on over 275 reviews. So did the fans, of course, who have agreed in the years since that the O.G. web-slinger movie essentially redefined the modern superhero blockbuster. The finished product was able to blend heartfelt, earnest storytelling with all the makings of an eye-popping cinematic experience.

A Reddit thread started in 2020, for instance, dove into how the Maguire-led Spider-Man “forever redefined the summer movie for Hollywood – Sony’s Marvel movie predated the MCU, but paved the way for the kinds of superheroes — and release dates — that still rule the box office.”

“It redefined the origin movie,” one Redditor commented in the thread. “Instead of a first act showing all his problems and then he starts using his powers he gets bitten in the first 5 minutes and the first act is a comedy about him discovering his powers.”