LA Times previews Spidey, Simpsons, etc

But do the threequels offer too much firepower for one month? Will one film leave the others in tatters or will moviegoers willingly queue up for all three in such quick succession?

“It’s a little bit like the 100-year flood — extremely unusual,” says Paul Dergarabedian of the box-office tracking firm Media by Numbers. “But I think the marketplace will expand and we could have the biggest May of all time.” He says “Shrek” should benefit from having a greater share of family moviegoers, while “Spider-Man” and “Pirates” will battle for teens.

However the audiences split, there’s plenty at stake. The three studios behind the threequels have devoted well more than half a billion dollars in combined budgets to make the movies — Sony’s “Spider-Man” carries an estimated price tag of $260 million, “Pirates of the Caribbean” will set Disney back some $280 million and DreamWorks is spending at least $130 million on the new “Shrek.”

NOT even threats of visits by Sideshow Bob or Fat Tony and the boys could wheedle many details of the upcoming “The Simpsons Movie” out of the series’ powers that be. Fans can only speculate on what kind of treatment it will get — there’s the bloated, inflated episode route (think “Star Trek: The Motion Picture”) or the movie as extension of the series option (“The X-Files”).

Specifics remain as closely guarded as the identity of the state in which Springfield is located. (Geography enthusiasts: the city has a gorge, an ocean port, a volcano and a desert.) “I can’t really tell you much,” said director David Silverman, “other than the Simpsons will be in it. Springfield will be in it; it’s not being shot in Vancouver. Very few animals were hurt in the shooting of this film … a couple.”