"Spider-Man 3" gave new meaning to the term "worldwide web" last weekend, snaring a whopping 382 million U.S. dollars in tickets sales worldwide in a record display of Hollywood's global reach.

The Sony film crushed the North American record with a three-day total of 151 million dollars in the United States and Canada over the weekend, topping last summer's "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest",according to final box office figures released here Monday.

The new domestic records set by the third "Spider-Man" include biggest single-day take (nearly 6 million dollars grossed on Friday) and biggest per-theater average for a wide release (35,540 dollars), Sony's Columbia Pictures said.

The eagerly awaited third cinematic return of the comic book hero was shown at 4,252 locations in North America and more than 8,900 theaters abroad.

It has broken box office records in 29 countries, including Canada, Japan, South Korea, China, Italy, Mexico and Brazil, since its Tuesday launch in over 100 territories

In South Korea, "Spider-Man 3" even did three times the business of the previous record holder -- the Korean film "The Host" -- and out-grossed the previous best Hollywood film -- "The Matrix Reloaded" -- with more than four times the take.

Other films in the U.S. and Canadian theaters were totally overshadowed at the box office, with last week's leader "Disturbia" dropping to second place with 5.8 millions dollars, followed by "Fracture", "The Invisible" and "Next", according to Los Angeles-based box office tracking firm Media By Numbers.

Thanks to "Spider-Man 3," the highest-grossing dozen films raked in a combined 181 million dollars in North America over the weekend, an 81 percent jump from the 99.6 million dollars generated by the top 12 films during the same period a week earlier.

The film's success overseas once again indicated the rising importance of the international audience for Hollywood and the willingness of U.S. studios to open films simultaneously across the world in an effort to prevent pirated versions.

Movie industry observers are now eager to see whether a new "Pirates of the Caribbean" film could reclaim the opening-weekend crown when Disney releases the "Pirates 3: At World's End" later this month.

Source: Xinhua