Spider-Man's historic US opening was mirrored by some record international bows over the weekend, with $13.3m from 700 prints in 17 territories across Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Columbia's comic book adaptation, which was directed by Sam Raimi and stars Tobey Maguire as the web-slinging superhero, scored all-time three-day openings in Thailand, Taiwan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Lebanon and Jordan. Figures are based on studio estimates and will be confirmed on Monday.

The movie recorded the second highest three-day openings of all-time in Iceland, Singapore and Korea, where it grossed $2.7m, and registered the third best debuts of all-time in Russia and Yugoslavia. The arachnid took $1.1m from Taiwan with an astonishing $61,000 average from 18 theatres. It also notched up $2.7m from 420 paid previews in Japan, the world's second biggest cinema-going market, where it will open in Japan on May 11.

"Spider-Man has exceeded out wildest dreams," said Mark Zucker, senior executive vice president of Columbia TriStar Film Distributors International. "It benefits from excellent marketing and wonderful collaboration with promotional partners but primarily it was this fantastic film delivered by Sam Raimi and producer Laura Ziskin and a great cast including Tobey Maguire, Kirsten Dunst and Willem Dafoe in key roles."

Zucker said the picture's synchronised and rapid international roll-out was partly designed to thwart pirates but had also turned the opening weekend into "a real worldwide event." Spider-Man will open in Latin America on May 17 and unspool across Europe in June with a UK release scheduled for June 14.