Tobey Maguire was initially cast as Spiderman but was almost recast due to complaints about his back during filming. His representatives intervened and Maguire agreed to medical tests proving his fitness. Kirsten Dunst likely earned $5-6 million for Spiderman 2 while new villain Alfred Molina earned around $1 million. Most of the sizable post-production budget for blockbusters like Spiderman goes towards expensive and increasingly complex special effects.

1. Spiderman
Harry Taylor

2.  For the first spider man movie, then Columbia pictures chairwomen Amy Pascal surpised the
community by hiring Evil Dead Director Sam Raimi whose at this time his biggest box office was
Darkman which scored a lacklustre £18m( $34m) at the US box office.Pascal was convinced by
Raimi’s passion for the material and the savvy move kept about the line costs down.

3.  Despite Pascal’s big result with Raimi, skimping on the talent for a blockbuster is a risky move. To cut costs
of the Alamo by a reported $25 million Disney decided to not approach Oscar winners Ron Howard and
Russell Crowe, and ended up with John Lee Hancock and Dennis Quaid. The budget still came in at over
$100 million and the poor US opening weekend of $9 million underlined their shortsightedness.

4. Cast:$30 MILLION
 Tobey Maguire landed the title role after first choice Heath ledger passed. His payday of $ 4 million for Spider man
went to an upfront $17 million for the second movie, although it was not always a foregone decision he would keep
the Peter Parker role, he was fired, replaced and then rehired. His fee was not the problem, but Columbia felt that his
behaviour during preproduction didn’t reflect his gratitude for the role and to the studio. Coming off he demanding
seabiscuit shoot, which required a strict diet. Maguire persistently complained of a bad back, because of this many
though of recasting the movie. An offer was made to Jake Gyllenhall. This was logical because his opposite Jennifer
Aniston in indie hit The Good Girl which made him hot property. The move was shot across bows for Maguire's
replacement. At this point Maguire's representatives stepped in, as well as Ron Meyer, president of Vivendi Universal.
They all assured the studio that Maguire would behave, as would his achy back. Maguire agreed to medical tests that
would prove his fitness for duty after Columbia took the step that the renegotiated clause contain specific clauses
stating that Maguire's back was in good condition.
 Industry insiders estimate returning co-topliner Kirstin Dunst may hae got $5-$6m for Spider-Man 2. New baddie
Alfred Molina would be paid in the region of $1m. The rest of the cast will have picked up $3. Actors, agents and
managers go home happy with a 10-15% of their client’s payday.

5. Special effects $65 million
 The lion’s share of the post-production budget is now spent on special effects. Editing remains a
sizeable chunk but, along with above-the-line costs, the effects budget on blockbuster is one of
the big spends, and is growing fast.
In the first Matrix movie(1999), there were 412 special effects shots, compared with a whopping
3,000+ for the next instalments of the franchise, costing over $100 m (reportedly). Rumor’s say that
the visual effects for the Hulk ran way over budget at over $100 million.
Rival studios compete to bring ground-breaking effects to the multiplex, and blockbusters are sold
as much on the magnitude of their state-of-the-art visuals as the attached talent. The trailer for the
Day after tomorrow is dominated by CG tidal waves devouring new York.
It will come as no surprise that blockbuster directors are increasingly investing in effects facilities.
Peter Jackson owns one-third of the New Zealand based facility Weta, which is working on King
Kong.

6. Music $5m
 No more that 3% of the budget. Danny Elfman(3 time Oscar nominated) composed the music for
Spider-Man 2 for a fee of £2. Sony Music Soundtrax will put out the official soundtrack which
includes tracks by Jet and Train. The first Spiderman album debuted at no 4 on the US albums
chart and sold more than two million copies worldwide.