The studio behind the multibillion-dollar "Spider-Man" franchise is doing some Web slinging of its own.
To snare outsize audiences for "Spider-Man 3," which cost about $400 million to make and release, Sony Pictures cast its widest online promotional net ever, using the Web in ways that were unimaginable when the superhero first scaled the big screen five years ago.
The digital campaign -- ads on MySpace, studio-sponsored blogs, free online Spidey games, downloadable trailers -- heralds the Internet's arrival as a bona-fide promotional tool for Hollywood and represents a shift in the allocation of dollars.
The reason is a no-brainer. "The Web," said Jeff Blake, Sony's head of worldwide marketing and distribution, "is a pretty economical way to reach moviegoers."
The studio's bet is that Spider-Man's amplified powers on the Web will pay off -- and they had better. Director Sam Raimi's dark tale about Peter Parker's battle with inner demons cost $260 million to produce and about $140 million to release in 10,000 theaters worldwide.
To cover studio costs and give theater owners their take, "Spider-Man 3" has to gross about $800 million in worldwide ticket sales. The first two installments in the franchise proved phenomenally lucrative, collectively amassing more than $1.6 billion globally. And No. 3 set opening day records Tuesday in 10 of the 16 territories in which it debuted, including France, Italy and South Korea.
But in Hollywood there's no such thing as a sure bet, so the studio has pulled out the digital stops.
Blake said a "substantial part" of the advertising budget had migrated away from newspapers to the Web. "The Internet as a marketing vehicle has grown in leaps and bounds," he said.
These days, consumers increasingly go online to research movie times, read reviews and watch trailers. "Like a lot of advertisers, Sony is following the audience, which has preceded them onto the Web," said Colby Atwood, president of Borrell Associates Inc., a media consulting firm. "They're overcoming their natural inertia to change."
While a newspaper ad or billboard can run nearly $100,000 and a 30-second spot on a hit TV show can set a studio back $1 million or more, the kind of Internet campaign that Sony is running (ads on heavily trafficked sites aside) can be relatively cheap.
