Sony Corp.'s film will play in 4,252 cinemas. Sales are projected to reach $143.2 million, exceeding the record set last year by Walt Disney Co.'s "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," according to Los Angeles-based Hollywood Stock Exchange, a Web site where users speculate on box-office results.

The studio is betting "Spider-Man 3" will extend the success of the first two films, which together had worldwide sales of $1.6 billion. "Spider-Man" will face competition from "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" and "Shrek the Third" later this month, said Standard & Poor's analyst Tuna Amobi said, potentially reducing repeat viewers.

"Expectations are pretty high," said Amobi, who is based in New York. "The only concern is how it's going to do in this relatively tight period."

"Spider-Man 3" set records in 10 of the 16 countries where it opened on May 1, including France, Germany and South Korea. In the U.S., midnight showings were scheduled in more than 1,000 theaters, according to online ticket vendor Fandango. More than 100 venues were sold out by yesterday afternoon, spokesman Harry Medved said.

Most studios have left the weekend to Tokyo-based Sony. The only other film opening in wide release is Time Warner Inc.'s Drew Barrymore romance "Lucky You," playing in 2,500 theaters.

"This could break records," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of Encino, California-based Media By Numbers LLC, which track sales each week. "There's a chance a single day record could fall, an opening weekend record could fall."

Single-Day Record

"Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" released in July 2006, also holds the opening-day record of $55.8 million, according to Media By Numbers.

"Spider-Man 3" cost an estimated $258 million to make, placing it among the most expensive films, said Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo LLC, which follows film costs.

The estimate, which doesn't include marketing expenses, trails earlier films when adjusted for inflation, Gray said.

Twentieth Century Fox spent $44 million on "Cleopatra" in 1963. Adjusted for inflation, the film starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton cost $295 million in today's dollars.

A box-office flop, "Cleopatra" forced the studio to sell off land to stave off bankruptcy.

"`Spider-Man 3' could be the most expensive unadjusted for inflation," Gray said in an interview. "These are all estimates."

Steve Elzer, a spokesman for Culver City, California-based Sony Pictures, declined to say how much the movie cost to make and market.

Wild Speculation

"There are a lot of wild and exaggerated reports on the Internet speculating about the rumored budget of the film," Elzer said in an e-mail. "The bottom line is this is an extremely successful franchise for the studio and we are very confident that our investment in this film will be rewarded."

Sony American depositary receipts, equaling one share each, fell 4 cents to $53.66 yesterday in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They have gained 25 percent this year.

The film returns Tobey Maguire in the starring role, and co- stars Kirsten Dunst as Spider-Man's girlfriend Mary Jane Watson. In this installment, Spider-Man struggles to resist his own dark side while battling new villains, Sandman and Venom, played by Topher Grace and Thomas Haden Church.

The movie will have sales of $381 million during its run in U.S. and Canadian theaters, Wedbush Morgan Securities analyst William Kidd predicts. That would be less than the $403.7 million take for the original "Spider-Man" but ahead of $373.6 in sales for "Spider-Man 2," according to Box Office Mojo.