With a record-breaking $120.1 million four-day total at the North American box office, X-Men: The Last Stand now stands as the biggest Memorial Day weekend opener ever, finally topping The Lost World: Jurassic Park, which opened Memorial Day weekend in 1997 with a four-day total of $90.1 million.
The third installment of the series featuring a cast of mutants with names like Storm (Halle Berry), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) and Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) opened in 3,690 theaters and grossed an average of $32,554 per theater.
“People had such a huge awareness of the movie that it just translated into these huge numbers,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations told The Associated Press. “The film benefited from a huge base of fans who had seen the first two X-Men films, plus great marketing and solid reviews.
“This is what the summer is all about,” Dergarabedian said, adding the box office has rebounded well since last year’s slump. “With Da Vinci Code doing better than anticipated … we could not be in a better position.”
The Top 12 pics this week grossed an estimated $228.5 over four days, making it the second biggest Memorial Day weekend overall. It was up 21.12 million from last weekend’s total of $154.9 million and up 1.38 percent from last year’s four-day draw of $225.4 million.
The Top Three films at the box office this time last year were: 20th Cent Fox’s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which stayed at No. 1 with $70 million in its second week in 3,663 theaters, averaging $19,123 per theater; DreamWorks’ Madagascar, which opened in second place with $47.2 million in 3,634 theaters, averaging $4,191 per theaters; and Paramount’s The Longest Yard, which opened in third place with $58.6 million in 3,634 theaters, averaging $16,129 per theaters (Click here to read last year’s box office report).
BOX OFFICE TOP 10, ESTIMATES (Four-Day Totals)
(Source: Exhibitor Relations, Inc.)
No. 1: X-Men: The Last Stand (20th Cent Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $120.1 million
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 3,690
• Per-theater average: $32,554
No. 2: The Da Vinci Code (Sony, PG-13)
• Gross: $77 million (-56%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 3,754 (+19)
• Per-theater average: $20,616
• Cume to date: $145.5 million
No. 3: Over the Hedge (DreamWorks, PG)
• Gross: $35.3 million (-30%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 4,093 (+34)
• Per-theater average: $8,635
• Cume to date: $84.3 million
No. 4: Mission: Impossible III (Paramount, PG-13)
• Gross: $8.5 million (-41%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 3,053 (-397)
• Per-theater average: $2,806
• Cume to date: $115.8 million
No. 5: Poseidon (Warner Bros., PG-13)
• Gross: $7 million (-40%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 3,245 (-310)
• Per-theater average: $2,157
• Cume to date: $46.6 million
No. 6: R.V. (Sony Pictures, PG)
• Gross: $5.3 million (-18%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 2,481 (-444)
• Per-theater average: $2,136
• Cume to date: $57.2 million
No. 7: See No Evil (Lions Gate, R)
• Gross: $2.6 million (-43%)
• Weeks opened: 2
• Theaters: 1,270 (+13)
• Per-theater average: $2,520
• Cume to date: $9.1 million
No. 8: Just My Luck (20th Century Fox, PG-13)
• Gross: $2.3 million (-46%)
• Weeks opened: 3
• Theaters: 1,604
• Per-theater average: $1,434
• Cume to date: $13.9 million
No. 9: United 93 (Universal, R)
• Gross: $1.1 million (-42%)
• Weeks opened: 5
• Theaters: 781 (-527)
• Per-theater average: $1,408
• Cume to date: $29.9 million
No. 10: An American Haunting (Freestyle Releasing, PG-13)
• Gross: $939,680 (-51%)
• Weeks opened: 4
• Theaters: 748 (-517)
• Per-theater average: $1,252
• Cume to date: $14.9 million
OTHER OPENINGS
An Inconvenient Truth (Paramount Classics, PG)
• Gross: $365,787
• Weeks opened: NEW!
• Theaters: 4
• Per-theater average: $91,447
