15 Most Highly-Anticipated Blockbuster Movies In History

The road to get Spider-Man to the big screen was an incredibly complicated one involving two decades, multiple studios, countless producers, a myriad of filmmakers and more than a few lawsuits.

As one of the most instantly-recognizable characters in any form of media with a following that spanned every demographic, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man was never going to be anything other than a colossal success. Luckily, Raimi also managed to craft a crowd-pleasing blockbuster that gave charm and character as much room to breathe as the action sequences, ensuring that the already-rabid fan-base was eager to come back for more.

Such was the clamor to see the movie, the British Board of Film Classification had to change their entire ratings system after initially rating the movie '12', which prompted outrage from parents across the country whose children were desperate to see Spider-Man in theaters, prompting the BBFC to introduce the '12A' guideline to appease them. Its not often that ratings boards back down, but they certainly did this time.

Riding a worldwide wave of hype and momentum, Spider-Man became the first movie to ever earn more than $100m during its opening weekend at the domestic box office and also made big money in Japan, Mexico and right across Europe, further proving that this was a movie the entire world had been waiting for, where it ultimately became the highest-grossing superhero movie of all time until it was eventually surpassed by The Dark Knight six years later.