The Amazing Spider-Man (2012)

The Amazing Spider-Man is a 2012 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Spider-Man and sharing the title of the character's longest-running comic book series of the same title. It is the fourth theatrical Spider-Man film produced by Columbia Pictures and Marvel Entertainment, a reboot of the series following Sam Raimi's 2002–2007 Spider-Man trilogy, and the first of the two The Amazing Spider-Man films. The film was directed by Marc Webb and written by James Vanderbilt, Alvin Sargent and Steve Kloves from a story by Vanderbilt, and stars Andrew Garfield as Peter Parker / Spider-Man alongside Emma Stone, Rhys Ifans, Denis Leary, Campbell Scott, Irrfan Khan, Martin Sheen, and Sally Field. In the film, after Parker is bitten by a genetically altered spider, he gains newfound, spider-like powers and ventures out to save the city from the machinations of the Lizard.

Development of the film began following the cancellation of Spider-Man 4 in January 2010, ending director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man film series that originally featured Tobey Maguire as the titular superhero. Columbia Pictures opted to reboot the franchise with the same production team along with Vanderbilt to stay on with writing the next Spider-Man film, while Sargent and Kloves helped with the script as well. During pre-production, the main characters were cast in 2010. New designs were introduced from the comics, such as artificial web-shooters. Using Red Digital Cinema Camera Company's RED Epic camera, principal photography started in December 2010 in Los Angeles before moving to New York City. The film entered post-production in April 2011. 3ality Technica provided 3D image processing, while Sony Pictures Imageworks handled CGI effects. This was also the final American film to be scored by James Horner and released during his lifetime, three years before his death on June 22, 2015 from an aircraft accident, as well as the penultimate film for both production designer J. Michael Riva and one of the producers Laura Ziskin, who died on June 7, 2012, and June 12, 2011, respectively. J. Michael Riva's last film as production designer was Django Unchained, released five months later and Ziskin's last film as producer was The Butler, released one year later in 2013.

Sony Pictures Entertainment built a promotional website, releasing many previews and launching a viral marketing campaign, among other moves. Tie-ins included a video game by Beenox and Activision. The film premiered on June 30, 2012, in Tokyo, and was released in the United States on July 3, ten years after the release of Spider-Man (2002), in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D formats. It received mostly positive reviews from critics, who praised Garfield's performance, Webb's direction, visual effects, James Horner's musical score, and the realistic re-imagining and portrayal of the title character. The film was a box office success, grossing $758 million worldwide, becoming the seventh highest-grossing film of 2012. A sequel, The Amazing Spider-Man 2, was released on May 2, 2014. Garfield and Ifans reprised their roles in the MCU film Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) which dealt with the concept of the multiverse and linked that franchise to the Raimi and Webb installments.

International versions

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