20 facts you might not know about 'Spider-Man 3'

Before Spider-Man 2 had even come out, Spider-Man 3 was announced. Before production began, a release date for the third film was announced as well. Alvin Sargent, an Oscar-winning screenwriter, signed a seven-picture deal with Sony. Yes, seven. Sargent had also written Spider-Man 2, and Sony wanted to lock him up.

When thinking about his villains for Spider-Man 3, Raimi knew he wanted to bring back Harry Osborn, son of Green Goblin Norman Osborn, to finish off this story. Additionally, he wanted to include Sandman as a villain for Spider-Man to deal with, as Raimi though he was visually interesting.

You know how in the Batman comics, a random criminal named Joe Chill kills Bruce Wayne’s parents? But in Tim Burton’s Batman, they made it a pre-Joker Jack Napier? Spider-Man 3 did something similar to Sandman. In the comics, he’s a simple petty criminal who becomes, well, a man of sand. For Spider-Man 3, though, Raimi decided he wanted Flint Marko, a.k.a. Sandman, to be the one who killed Uncle Ben.

In addition to Harry Osborn and Sandman, Raimi wanted another villain in the mix. Namely, Vulture. The director went as far as to talk to Ben Kingsley about playing the Vulture, but then the character was nixed.

Avi Arad, a producer on the Spider-Man films, really wanted Venom in the movie. Venom was a popular modern Spider-Man antagonist. Arad felt like Raimi was too devoted to the villains he liked, and the producer wanted a more populist choice. Begrudgingly, the director included Venom to appease Arad.

Mary Jane had been around and played by Kirsten Dunst for the entirety of the film series. However, the producers wanted another Peter Parker love interest, Gwen Stacy, added to the movie. Once again, Raimi listened to his producers, and Stacy was included in the film as another potential love interest.

Church had spent years as a character actor, probably best known for a role in the sitcom Wings. Then, suddenly, he was an Oscar nominee for Sideways. In the wake of Sideways, Church was offered the role of Sandman. Even though the script wasn’t finished at the time, Church agreed to sign on.

Grace, a fan of Venom from reading comics as a kid, was happy to be offered the role of Eddie Brock, a.k.a. Venom. Unfortunately, the film was a tough shoot for Grace. He found the Venom suit unpleasant to wear, and it took an hour for him to get in the costume, and then four hours to get in prosthetics to play Venom. Plus, the fake fangs he wore ended up bruising his gums.

Howard was cast to play Gwen Stacy. It was an interesting choice because they stayed true to Stacy’s blonde locks in the comics, and Howard is famously — like her father, Ron — a redhead. The actress performed several stunts herself, but in retrospect, she probably wouldn’t have. Unknown to Howard at the time, she was pregnant while filming Spider-Man 3.

Cliff Robertson, an Oscar winner, played Uncle Ben in Spider-Man. He reprised the role in Spider-Man 3 — in a flashback, of course. This would be Robertson’s last role. He would retire afterward and not act again before his death in 2011.

Stan Lee is known for cameoing in Marvel movies, popping up dozens of times before his passing. In addition to Lee showing up, Bruce Campbell has a role as a French maitre’d. Raimi and Campbell are childhood friends who broke through together with The Evil Dead. Raimi loves to give his buddy Bruce cameos, and across his Spider-Man trilogy, he appeared as three different characters.

John Dykstra won an Oscar for Best Visual Effects for Spider-Man 2, but he decided not to return for Spider-Man 3. On top of that, Danny Elfman did not return to compose the score for this movie. He called working with Raimi on the second film a “miserable experience.” Raimi and Elfman would apparently bury the hatchet, though, as they worked together on Oz the Great and Powerful.

In the subway fight scene between Sandman and Spider-Man, Church was supposed to miss with a punch and cause a piece of the wall to break off. There was also supposed to be a foam brick for Church to punch. Unfortunately for him, the foam brick wasn’t in place, and so the actor punched a real brick. He broke three fingers in the process.

Remember Flash Thompson? The bully that Peter Parker fights in the first film, played by future notable actor Joe Manganiello? Well, Manganiello returns for Spider-Man 3, but you may need to look for him. The actor showed up for a cameo in the background during Harry Osborne’s funeral.

We may think of the villains by their names from the comics. There’s a shorthand there. However, Venom is never actually called Venom in the comics. Flint Marko is only referred to as “Sandman” once. Also, in the comics Harry becomes known as New Goblin, but in this film, he is never called that. Peter calls him “Goblin Junior” once, but that’s it.

On May 4, 2007, Spider-Man 3 was released in 4,253 theaters across North America. This was a new record. That helped the movie make $104 million worldwide on the Friday it opened, a new record. Then, on Saturday, the film broke its own record by raking in $117.6 million.

Bringing in $336.5 million domestically, Spider-Man 3 was the highest-grossing film in North America in 2007. Worldwide, it made $894.9 million, which was good enough to finish third overall in the box office. Spider-Man 3 was the highest-grossing film in Raimi’s trilogy.

Spider-Man 3 brought in a ton of cash, but critics and moviegoers were mixed on it. The response to the film was lukewarm at best. Raimi did not feel lukewarm about it, though. In 2014, the director called his own movie “awful.” Arad, for his part, would take blame for the movie’s failing, admitting he pushed Venom on Raimi, and ultimately, it didn’t work for the film.

Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy was not intended to be a trilogy. There was actually talk of doing up to six films. In fact, a fourth film was in production. A script was written, and John Malkovich was in talks to play Vulture, while Anne Hathaway was going to play Black Cat. Then, Raimi pulled out of the project. He despised every iteration of the script. With a 2011 release date already on the books, Raimi didn’t think he could make a good movie on the timeline asked of him. Nobody stepped into his shoes, and the movie didn’t happen.

At this point, we assume you are familiar with Spider-Man: No Way Home and the fact that Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield both appeared in the film as Peter Parkers/Spider-Men from the multiverse. Before that happened, though, there was talks of a “Spider-Man vs. The Amazing Spider-Man” movie that would have been a crossover featuring just Maguire and Garfield. Sony had wanted Raimi to direct it. That movie, alas, did not happen.