November 1 marked the 23rd anniversary of the DVD release of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man.\u00a0To celebrate this (very) belated birthday, let’s travel\u00a0back to a fascinating piece of history regarding the movie’s finances. It’s hard to overestimate just how much Spider-Man contributed to what we know as the superhero genre today. The film was a phenomenon, and Sony spent on it as such, including for its home video release.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Reddit user u\/JannTosh70 on the\u00a0r\/boxoffice subreddit<\/a>\u00a0unearthed a Variety article<\/a> from July 14,\u00a02002, “Spidey to get record push.” The trade revealed Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment (renamed<\/a> Sony Pictures Home Entertainment in 2004) had pretty big expectations for the November 1 DVD release of the film, which had come out theatrically two months prior, reaching\u00a0$400 million domestically. This\u00a0led the studio to spend over $100 million on promoting its\u00a0home video release.\u00a0<\/p>\n Per the outlet, the DVD release would carry over partnerships that began during the movie’s theatrical release, with some of the companies involved being Carl’s Jr. and Dr. Pepper. Media buys and promotions\u00a0alone increased the value of the campaign\u00a0by $45 million, leading it to total over $100 million. This, in turn, made\u00a0it Sony’s\u00a0biggest marketing campaign of all time\u00a0(at that\u00a0point).\u00a0<\/p>\n The studio was sure\u00a0Spidey would take the title of best-selling DVD in Hollywood\u00a0from Sony’s\u00a0Men in Black\u00a0(released\u00a0September 5, 2000), which had sold between 15 to 16 million copies at the time. Sony also hoped Spidey would\u00a0surpass The Lion King as the all-time home rental of that era, which would have meant almost doubling Men in Black’s numbers.\u00a0According to the trade, Sony gave Spidey a rare Friday release date, hoping\u00a0to take advantage of the Halloween weekend and pre-Thanksgiving weekend sales.\u00a0<\/p>\n Funnily enough, Spider-Man was also expected to have\u00a0competition from Sony’s other 2002 releases, such as Stuart Little 2, Men in Black II, and\u00a0Mr. Deeds (a near masterpiece, by the way). Outside of the studio’s offerings, the Web-Slinger also competed against other\u00a0heavy-hitters like\u00a0Attack of the Clones, Monsters, Inc. and The Fellowship of the Ring.<\/p>\n So, what happened once the Spider-Man DVD\u00a0hit store shelves? Well, it didn’t disappoint. According to BBC<\/a>, a mere three days after its release, Spider-Man\u00a0had sold more than 11 million DVD and VHS copies in the United States and Canda, a number that amounted to $190 million in sales. To put those numbers into perspective, the home media\u00a0release made more in its first three days\u00a0than the film’s opening weekend<\/a> of\u00a0approximately $114 million. Just on its first day, the movie sold seven million copies, breaking the one-day-sales record previously held by Monsters, Inc.\u00a0by 2 million.\u00a0<\/p>\n Sony’s bold release\u00a0strategy ended up paying\u00a0off, as BBC stated sales for the film were boosted by Halloween promotions and subsequent discounts.\u00a0<\/p>\n