''Spider-Man'' tops $200 million

Most studio heads would kill to have one of their movies make $72 million in its first weekend. ”Spider-Man” just did it in its second.

Dropping only 37 percent from its record-shattering $114.8 million debut, the blockbuster, starring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst, scored enough cash to result in the fourth-biggest weekend take in history, behind itself and the openings of ”Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” and ”The Lost World: Jurassic Park,” according to studio estimates. Most impressively, ”Spider-Man” crossed the $200 million mark on Saturday, its ninth day of release, sprinting past the previous 13-day benchmark held by ”Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.” To put it simply, audiences are going bonkers for this movie, recommending it to their friends and returning to see it multiple times. Its 10-day total now stands at a staggering $223.6 million, which means that it will have grossed almost $250 million before ”Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones” opens this Thursday and immediately takes over the top slot.

The week’s two new releases fared well despite being clobbered by the body-suited superhero. Richard Gere’s adultery drama ”Unfaithful” placed second with $14.2 million, an improvement over his last entries, ”The Mothman Prophecies,” ”Dr. T and the Women,” and ”Autumn in New York.” Mostly excellent reviews and intense media coverage of the film’s steamy sex scenes and a star-making performance by leading lady Diane Lane certainly helped. On the other hand, laughable reviews didn’t exactly kill ”The New Guy,” the crude-humored comedy starring ”Road Trip” geek D.J. Qualls, which performed much better than recent juvenile flicks, earning $9.5 million. Looks like lots of people still couldn’t get into ”Spider-Man.”

Rounding out the top five, as expected, were ”The Scorpion King” and ”Changing Lanes” with $4.4 million and $3.5 million, respectively. But with the release of ”Clones” and Hugh Grant’s ”About A Boy” this weekend, those two are about to become old news.

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