How much money did Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy make?

By Alex Wiggan

Image: ©Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures/Marvel Entertainment

Between 2002 and 2007, Sony Pictures produced three live-action Spider-Man movies. The films were incredibly popular with audiences and featured an assorted cast that included Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst, James Franco, Rosemary Harris, Cliff Robertson, Willem Dafoe, Alfred Molina, J.K. Simmons, Bill Nunn, Ted Raimi, Topher Grace, Bryce Dallas Howard and Thomas Haden Church, amongst others.

The films in the trilogy included Spider-Man (2002), Spider-Man 2 (2004), and Spider-Man 3 (1997). All three movies in the series were directed by Sam Raimi, became collectively known as the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy, and featured a collection of Spider-Man’s classic foes.

So, those are the movies, but how well did they perform at the box office? Spidey films tend to do big business, so how lucrative were these three offerings and did they all perform equally, or was one a greater earner than the others?

Let’s take a look.

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Spider-Man (2002)

First out of the blocks was 2002’s Spider-Man, which was produced on a budget of $139 million. In terms of its return on investment, it did rather well for itself.

Upon release, Spider-Man took an impressive $403,706,375 at the North American box office, while internationally, the film took a further $418,002,176. The result? A hugely successful start for the trilogy.

It’s grand total?

$821,708,551

Not bad going for a movie, is it? Especially back in 2002.

Spider-Man 2 (2004)

Moving onto 2004’s Spider-Man 2 and this film was produced on a budget of $200 million. This was an increase on its predecessor’s budget, but as with most sequels it was a case of ‘go big, or go home’.

In terms of the money it made, Spider-Man 2 took $373,585,825 in the US. Internationally, this second entry in the trilogy raked in an additional $410,180,516.

The grand total for Spider-Man 2?

$783,766,341

So, it cost a little more to make, and it took a little less back. However, still big money overall.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

Moving on to movie No.3 and the production budget for Spider-Man 3 was increased again, this time to $258 million. The result was $336,530,303 in returns at the North American box office, while internationally it took $554,341,323.

The box office returns in the US were a little less than its predecessor. However, internationally the film did better than Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2 with overseas audiences.

The total for Spider-Man 3?

$890,871,626

Once again, a great sum of cash for the time period.

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Totals

Ok, so those are the individual totals, but now let’s combine them.

Spider-Man total: $821,708,551
Spider-Man 2 total: $783,766,341
Spider-Man 3 total: $890,871,626

When combined, the total for Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy is: $2,496,346,518

The conclusion? Well, firstly, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man films were very successful for Sony Pictures. Which is why the studio has been so keen to maintain the rights to the movies, even going so far as to produce a string of Spidey spin-offs, such as Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024).

But let’s drill down a little, and look at the individual entries.

The initial entry in 2002 was a smash hit for the studio and demonstrated the star power of Spider-Man. Bar a collection of TV-to-cinema films released during the 1970s and 1980s, this was the first Spider-Man movie produced specifically for the big screen and it was very profitable.

Not only did this movie put Spidey on the movie map, but it was also a top earner. Back in 2002, comic book movies didn’t make over $820 million at the box-office, so this demonstrates how popular the film was.

Now, when it came to Spider-Man 2, the film cost more to make than Spider-Man and it didn’t make quite as much back as its predecessor; however, it was still a big hit at the box office. $783 million is nothing to be sniffed at, and the film proved once again that Spider-Man was a character perfect for the cinema.

The final chapter in the series, Spider-Man 3, cost the most to make out of the three films, but also took the most amount of money at the box office. When production costs are taken into consideration, Spider-Man 3 wasn’t quite as profitable as Spider-Man, but once again it was another high earner and it kept the franchise at the top of the movie charts.

So, these films were big then? Yep, HUGE!

Sony Pictures hit the payload with these films, and their success is the reason the studio pressed ahead with The Amazing Spider-Man film series (2012-2014), and every Spider-Man film that followed. Across the course of three film series, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy made almost $2.5 billion worldwide – a hugely impressive figure that cemented Spider-Man as a box office draw and continues to ensure he is one of the biggest superheroes on screen!

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Writer/Editor/Mathematician

Alex Wiggan

Alex is a writer, editor, and blogger specialising in movies, TV, comics, retro toys, and general geekery. He is a championing voice in nerd content, an expert in pop culture, and a trusted movie critic who publishes new reviews on a weekly basis. After graduating with a degree in film & television studies from the University of Derby in the UK, Alex went on to study journalism in Sheffield, before acquiring NCTJ accreditation. Prior to a career in blogging, Alex was a magazine editor, a senior copywriter, a features writer, and a freelancer.

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