Tuesday April 24 3:33 PM ET
Early reviews are good, advance ticket sales are strong and two weeks before its debut, “Spider-Man 3” is grabbing headlines around the world, but director Sam Raimi is so tired he can’t think of more Spidey movies.

“I’m just exhausted, and I need to get away from it for awhile,” Raimi told Reuters in a recent interview.

The big question for this third film about the superhero with spider-like powers is whether audiences will be tired, too, when “Spidey 3” makes its global debut on May 4.

Later sequels in a series tend to face a rough time at the box office because their makers, stars and audiences are weary of the story.

The first “Batman” raked in $411 million worldwide in 1989, but the fourth, 1997’s “Batman & Robin,” posted a $238 million global haul. One notable exception is the “Lord of the Rings” films, which gained critical success and box office muscle during all three of their outings.

To combat sequel fatigue, Raimi said he infused “Spider-Man 3” with a “brand new energy” to create tension between the three main characters, Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire), his girlfriend Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) and his best friend and sometime adversary Harry Osborn (James Franco).

Spider-Man battles new villains in the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church) and Venom (Topher Grace), and develops a new love interest, Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), who comes between Watson and Spidey’s alter ego, the geeky Peter Parker.

GOOD SPIDEY GONE BAD

One factor that may be as important as any of these new characters is that all-around good guy Parker lets the fame of being Spider-Man go to his head, and he risks losing the love of Watson.

“We were not going to keep remaking the same story — even though there are similar elements to all the ‘Spider-Man’ films — we’re going to continue the growth of this guy as a human being,” said Raimi, who also directed the first two installments.

For now, Raimi’s formula is working. The movie, which cost more than $250 million to make, premiered in Tokyo on April 16, screened in Los Angeles late last week and played in London on Monday. Early reviews are mostly good.

“Arachnophiles everywhere finally have cause to celebrate,” said show business newspaper Hollywood Reporter. In London, The Times said the movie “amounts to a daft, highly polished couple of hours of fantasy fun” and gave it three stars out of five.

Comic book films such as “Spider-Man” have mostly young fans who rarely heed reviews, and the third film seems to be enjoying a great deal of pent-up demand.

Earlier this week, online ticket sellers Movietickets.com and Fandango.com said advance sales were very brisk.

So Raimi should rest easy. All the hype, global premieres, early reviews and ticket sales add up to what looks like success for “Spider-Man 3” — if the movie pirates don’t strike first. Already, pirated DVDs can be bought in Beijing.

A fourth film is in development at Columbia Pictures, and while it may not be directed by Raimi — for now, he’s not saying whether he’ll return — he said he is willing to take a look.

“I think they have talked about that, and I’d love to read what they’re developing,” Raimi said.

Reuters/Nielsen

This story is from Reuters. Don’t you love it when people stand their ground. . .

Borrowing a line from “Gone With the Wind,” film critic Roger Ebert is telling the paparazzi to take all the pictures they want when he appears in public after surgery that has left him temporarily disfigured.

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn,” Ebert said in a column published on Tuesday in the Chicago Sun-Times.

The Pulitzer Prize winner and co-host of the syndicated television show “Ebert & Roeper” had surgery last year for salivary gland cancer that spread to his lower jaw.

Part of his jawbone was removed, and two replacement operations have failed, he said. He is awaiting a third operation.

Ebert, 64, also had a tracheotomy that left him unable to speak. While he has written some movie reviews during recovery, his TV show has used guest critics.

This week Ebert kicks off his annual Overlooked Film Festival in Urbana, Illinois, south of Chicago. As he has for the last eight years, he will host the event.

He said people had urged him not to attend because the paparazzi would take unflattering photos and gossip columns would dish up mean-spirited comments about him.

“When I turn up in Urbana, I will be wearing a gauze bandage around my neck, and my mouth will be seen to droop. So it goes,” Ebert wrote.

“We spend too much time hiding illness. There is an assumption that I must always look the same. I hope to look better than I look now. But I’m not going to miss my festival,” he added.

Ebert said he now communicates “with written notes and a lot of hand waving and eye-rolling.” If a planned surgery is successful, “my speech will be restored.”