Spider-Man was my Batman 89 in the sense of how much of a cultural event it was at the time. Spider-Man was absolutely everywhere in the lead up to that first film. There was Spider-Man Cereal, Spider-Man tie in’s in Kellogg’s boxes, Spider-Man Pop Tarts, Spider-Man Reebok’s, Spider-Man on candy bars, Spider-Man on Dr Pepper cans, Spider-Man at Cingular wireless, etc…. Not to mention the apparel that people were buying and all the toys. Also, I remember E! airing a documentary about the hype for the film, along with HBO’s first look of it, and the music video’s being on MTV all the time.
That opening weekend the lines for Spider-Man were insane. You needed to get to the theatre at least two hours early to get a good seat. Living through all that as a 10 year old was amazing.