Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) bombed earlier in the summer with a movie called Speed Racer. If you said you didn't see that one, I wouldn't be surprised. However, in the interest of cosmic balance, the media company scored with its new Batman flick, The Dark Knight. And when I say scored, I mean it. The film is estimated to have taken in about $155 million over the past three-day weekend at domestic theaters, according to Boxofficemojo. If this estimate holds, then it represents record business. Spider-Man 3 currently holds the three-day record of $151.1 million.

Mamma Mia!, distributed by General Electric's (NYSE: GE) Universal didn't come close to the Bat. It came in second with around $27 million. Hancock from Sony (NYSE: SNE) was third with $14 million, and it will be crossing the $200 million mark in about a week or so. Time Warner's Journey to the Center of the Earth was fourth, while Universal's Hellboy II: The Golden Army was fifth. That film took a steep 70% drop compared to its debut-weekend performance. I didn't think it would fall that far, but I suppose the Batman juggernaut left it no choice but to step aside. It took in a weak $10 million for the weekend.

Comic book publisher and super-hero film maker Marvel Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: MVL) recently posted big numbers for 3Q 2007, based primarily on the success of Spider-Man 3. The webslinger's numbers are large enough to cause Marvel CEO Morton Handel to raise FY 2007 guidance from EPS $1.30-$1.55 to $1.60-$1.65. FY 2008 is forecast to be just under EPS 2007 range with the 2008 release of Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk video games.

Bear in mind these numbers were generated before the Hollywood writers' strike. Now all bets are off given the strike's unknown duration. Marvel has a number of projects in various stages of development. Both Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk movies are in the final stages of completion and are set to be released before the beginning of summer 2008. Production of TV series for Wolverine and the X-Men and Iron Man will be delayed, as will the Punisher 2 movie. Investors should enjoy the profits while they can.

Marvel is in the process of shifting away from producing its own toys to licensing Hasbro to produce them. This is a good strategy as more toys, including Curious George toys, are being recalled due to possible lead contamination. This shift has caused a $10 million drop in revenue in 3Q 2007, but this decline was more than covered by a doubling of net sales, to $66 million, in the licensing segment. The rise is driven primarily by Spider-Man 3. While other publishers struggle to turn a profit, comic books are still good sellers. Net sales increased 13% to $35 million, based on World War Hulk and Stephen King's Dark Towers.

This summer was a very profitable one for box offices nationwide, with four movies grossing over $300M, and at least another nine grossing over $100M -- signaling in a big way the resurgence of the movie industry, which had been struggling for the last few years.

The four big $300M+ winners of the summer were Sony Corporation (ADR) (NYSE: SNE) 'sSpider-Man 3, which grossed $336M in the U.S., Viacom, Inc (NYSE: VIA)'s Paramount's Shrek the Third, which grossed $320M, Transformers, also from Paramount, which grossed $311M, and The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS)'s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which grossed $308M.

Three of the four were third installments of well established big-budget franchises, so their success is hardly shocking, but the Transformers success clearly marks the start of a new blockbuster franchise (the release date of the sequel has been announced -- June 26, 2009). The robot-action extravaganza, which was directed by Michael Bay, was definitely a surprise, as I remarked in my summer movie preview that Transformers "has flop written all over it... there cannot possibly be enough substance in a story about alien robots that transform into vehicles to make this a hit with the general public." I was wrong -- very wrong. The movie killed at the box office, grossing over $330M on a $150M budget, and prompting a re-release on IMAX, which opened last week.

As "Spider-Man 3" breaks box office records, its studio Sony Corp. (NYSE: SNE) is about to hit milestone that's not worth celebrating.

The Japanese conglomerate may report its worst quarterly loss in four years tomorrow because of lackluster sales of the PlayStation 3, according to Bloomberg News. The company's movie division, of course, is a bright spot for Chief Executive Howard Stringer.

But before investors' spidey senses start tingling, some reality is in order.

For one thing, "Spider-Man 3" was an extremely expensive film to make. Media reports say it was the costliest film in the history of Hollywood. Radar magazine pegs the price tag at $500 million, Sony says the figure is closer to $270 million.

Everyone agrees that it rewrote the rulebook in Hollywood.

Despite lukewarm reviews and a smattering of sub-plots spilling over in a bloated script (in this fan's opinion), Spider-Man 3 ensnared millions of fans in its web over the weekend, setting box-office records and raking in $375 million in ticket sales around the globe. The third installment following the escapades of our friendly neighborhood arachnid, trumped the previous record holder, Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith, which banked $254 million in its opening weekend in 2005.

In North America, the Tobey Maguire/Kirsten Dunst vehicle took in $148 million since Friday, topping the domestic box-office record set by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest last July. Additionally, Spider-Man 3 -- distributed by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp. ADR (NYSE: SNE) -- set a single-day record on Friday, selling $59.3 million in tickets, inching above the earlier record, also set by Dead Man's Chest. The latest installment was no frugal feat, costing nearly $260 million to produce.