Claim: Spider-Man had its general release in the United States on May 3, 2002.

Spider-Man is a 2002 American superhero film directed by Sam Raimi . Based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name , the film stars Tobey Maguire as Peter Parker , a high school student living in New York City , who turns to crimefighting after developing spider-like super powers . Spider-Man also stars Kirsten Dunst as Peter 's love interest Mary Jane Watson , Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/Green Goblin , Rosemary Harris and Cliff Robertson as Aunt May and Uncle Ben , and James Franco as his best friend Harry Osborn .   After progress on the film stalled for nearly 25 years , it was licensed for a worldwide release by Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1999 after it acquired options from MGM on all previous scripts developed by Cannon Films , Carolco and New Cannon . Exercising its option on just two elements from the multi-script acquisition -LRB- a different screenplay was written by James Cameron , Ted Newsom , John Brancato , Barney Cohen and `` Joseph Goldman '' -RRB- , Sony hired David Koepp to create a working screenplay -LRB- credited as Cameron 's -RRB- , and Koepp received sole credit in final billing . Directors Roland Emmerich , Ang Lee , Chris Columbus , Jan de Bont , M. Night Shyamalan , Tony Scott and David Fincher were considered to direct the project before Raimi was hired as director in 2000 . The Koepp script was rewritten by Scott Rosenberg during preproduction and received a dialogue polish from Alvin Sargent during production .   Filming took place in Los Angeles , and New York City from January 8 to June 30 , 2001 . Spider-Man premiered in the Philippines on April 30 , 2002 , and had its general release in the United States on May 3 , 2002 . It became a critical and financial success . At the time , it was the only film to reach $ 100 million in its first weekend , had the largest opening weekend gross of all time , and was the most successful film based on a comic book . With $ 821.7 million worldwide , it was 2002 's third-highest-grossing film and is the 56th-highest-grossing film of all time -LRB- seventh at the time of release -RRB- . The film was nominated at the 75th Academy Awards ceremony for Best Visual Effects and Best Sound Mixing . Due to the success of the film , Columbia Pictures and Marvel released two sequels , Spider-Man 2 in 2004 , and Spider-Man 3 in 2007 .