"Spiderman 3" made the biggest opening day debut ever in the history of film on Friday, grossing about 104 million dollars worldwide.

In North America, the movie brought in 59 million dollars. These figures shattered domestic and worldwide box office records, according to estimates released Saturday.

Based on the first day's performance, Sony Studios is predicting the film will deliver somewhere between 135 million to 145 million dollars in North America by the end of its first three days of release, according to box officer Media By Numbers.

"Fifty nine million dollars would've been a great opening weekend, let alone a single day," said Sony Studios President Paul Dergarabedian.

"This is great for the film industry considering where we were in the summer of '05. We were in the worst slump in box office history," he said. "This shows that the theatrical movie-going experience is here to stay."

Dergarabedian attributes the film's success to the last two Spiderman, which he called "solid" films; a "terrific marketing campaign"; and showings on about 11,000 screens -- the most screens for any movie in history.

The first film in the franchise, "Spiderman," grossed about 39. 4 million dollars on its opening day in 2002. The 2004 sequel took in even more, with about 40.4 million dollars on its first day of release.

"Spiderman 3" kicks off "what could be a record-breaking summer at the box office," with the third installment in the "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchise also set to open, Dergarabedian said.

Source: Xinhua