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

Based on the first day's performance, Sony Studios is predicting the film will deliver somewhere between US$135 million to US$145 million 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 US$39.4 million on its opening day in 2002. The 2004 sequel took in even more, with about US$40.4 million 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.