Studio Signs For Three More Spider-man Movies.... Webbed superhero Spider-Man will appear in at least three more movies, Sony Pictures have confirmed.The studio's chief executive Michael Lynton said after the box office success of the latest release Spider-Man 3, there is a huge audience waiting to see the story continue.Lynton tells Bbc News, "Everybody has every intention of making a fourth, a fifth and a sixth and on and on."(We'll make) as many as we can make good stories for."Spider-Man 3 entered the record books as the most successful new release ever after taking $148 million (£74 million) in its opening weekend.Lynton enthuses, "I think it had a lot to do with timing - the fact we were the first out in the summer."I think it had to do with the fact that the movie had a universal appeal, it had a broader appeal than the second movie, it attracted a family audience and brought the family audience back."There were many factors that contributed to it, and there's a part that you just put down to 'I don't know'."

Lynton did not confirm whether director Sam Raimi or Tobey Maguire would be coming back for the fourth installment and beyond.

Spider-Man 3 has broken North American box office records after selling $59 million (£29.5 million) worth of tickets on its first day of release.

The third installment of the comic book action movie - featuring Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst - opened in cinemas across the US and Canada on Friday (04Mar07), and is already predicted to smash opening weekend records, according to estimations by the film's distributor, Columbia Pictures.

The previous record for one-day ticket sales in North America was held by 2006's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest with $55.8 million (£27.9 million) taken on the first day of screening. The Johnny Depp-starring movie is also the current record holder of sales for the opening weekend, with $135.6 million (£67.8 million).

But with the web-slinging super hero sweeping box offices across the continent in the Sam Raimi-directed film, the record for the biggest opening weekend looks likely to be changing hands within the next 24 hours.

In a statement, Columbia Pictures says, "Based on the first day's performance, the studio believes the film will deliver in the range of $135 million to $145 million in North American for its first three days of release."

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