Spinning a corporate web

TOKYO —  Even superheroes should beware of getting smug.

That’s one of the morals of “Spider-Man 3,” in which Tobey Maguire’s rappelling, sticky crime buster discovers that life is not always beautiful, even when you’re a local celebrity and you think you have the girl of your dreams wrapped around your ring finger.

The third installment of Sony Pictures’ lucrative Spidey franchise premiered Monday in Tokyo, the first time a major Hollywood feature has debuted outside the United States. About 2,000 guests showed up to see what director Sam Raimi, some brilliant computer graphics and a $250-million budget can do with a onetime two-dimensional comic book character now confronted by his suppressed dark side.

“Spider-Man 3” proves that Maguire can take a punch from a big fist made of sand. But the real risk is whether an American superhero with two hit movies earned by fighting off bad guys in the canyons of Manhattan, can remain a blockbuster draw in the international markets that are often more important to Hollywood’s bottom line.

“Who knows,” said Sony Chief Executive Howard Stringer, when asked how long the Spider-Man franchise can be extended. “It’s so expensive.” Of course, “Spider-Man 3” is more than a movie. It is also a video game, a soundtrack and a bunch of other marketing hooks.

Stringer ordered the movie to premiere in Tokyo ahead of its May 4 U.S. opening to underscore his determination to make the point in Japan that the company should be as celebrated for its movies, music and video games as for its screens and consoles.

“In the digital age, who knows what came first: the content or the hardware, the chicken or the egg,” said Springer to the Tokyo audience before the curtain rose.

That was, in part, a riposte to local critics who have moaned about the Welsh American executive’s radical remaking of the iconic Japanese company -- and his peripatetic lifestyle that sees him constantly on the road, bopping to Sony stations around the world and living in a hotel when in Tokyo. But with Sony’s fortunes now rising again -- the company is a buy for almost all stockbrokers in Tokyo -- Stringer has acquired some breathing space to keep pushing his stamp on the company.

The anticipation for “Spider-Man 3” gives Stringer a chance to promote Sony as an entertainment company as well as an electronics one. He has also expressed a determination to build a new template for global success that does not depend on a worldwide infatuation with American products, trying to position Sony instead as an entertainment producer in local markets.

That corporate bulletin may not have reached director Raimi before the final cut. In one telling scene, as Spider-Man arrives for the final battle against the latest incarnation of evil, he lands in his ready-to-rumble pose in front of an American flag. With the New York crowd cheering, the Stars and Stripes lovingly swirls around Spider-Man, caressing him for a second before he goes into battle.

It’s an American moment. “That was Sam’s idea,” Stringer said.

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bruce.wallace@latimes.com