Continue Reading Below Advertisement

It's also the lowest-performing of that particular Spidey trilogy ... but still grossed more than any Spider-Man movie since.

Neither of the Amazing Spider-Man films managed to beat any of Raimi's, and neither did the universally praised Spider-Man: Homecoming. Now, Homecoming is a fun movie with solid action, a likable Peter Parker, and one of those Michael Keaton performances that make you wonder why Michael Keaton isn't in every movie. And currently, Homecoming sits at $334 million, which is only 2 million behind Spider-Man 3 but lags more in ticket sales, since prices have gone up since 2007. Yet we regard Homecoming as a franchise-saving rebirth and remember Spider-Man 3 as a Tobey-Maguire-shattering failure that nearly ruined cinema.

Continue Reading Below Advertisement

This is especially weird when we look at the reviews that came out around Spider-Man 3's release. There are some harsh ones, but for the most part, they all seem to think it was just ... whatever. And "just whatever" is definitely a little better than "The movie is so bad that it literally shot my uncle." Does Spider-Man 3 deserve the all-too-common "It's been a few years now. Is this movie SECRETLY a MASTERPIECE?" treatment? No. God, no. But it's weird how badly we want the numbers to conform to our opinions.