Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" is off to a huge start with a worldwide box office take of $311.1 million its opening weekend.
Variety reports the film grossed an estimated $126 million domestically from 4,260 theaters and earned the second-best Memorial Day bow. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" still holds the record for its $139.8 million take during the 2007 Memorial Day weekend opening.
"Crystal Skull" opened on Thursday and its five-day domestic take was an estimated $151.1 million, according to Rentrak. Spielberg directed "Crystal Skull" from a script by David Koepp. Along with Harrison Ford, the film also stars Cate Blanchett, Shia LaBeouf, Karen Allen and Ray Winstone.
Disney’s "Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" dropped 58% in its second weekend and took in an estimated $28.6 million during the four-day weekend. It has earned $96.7 million in its first 10 days.
The Narnia sequel has performed slightly below the studio’s expectations in the domestic market, but it has yet to open overseas.
In Variety, Disney prexy of domestic distribution Chuck Viane stated: "We're really looking forward to kids getting out of school."
Paramount's "Iron Man" continued to heat up the box office with $25.6 million over the Memorial Day weekend. The film has made $257.8 million since its release and dropped 37% from the previous weekend to earn a No. 3 spot.
The Memorial Day box office was down roughly 16% from 2007 – which was led by the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End."
Indiana Jones has given Spielberg and Paramount their best opening numbers after the director's "War of the Worlds." Paramount is distributing "Crystal Skull" for George Lucas' Lucasfilm. Even with the PG-13 rating, "Crystal Skull" appealed to the family film market.
The film’s opening also proved the audience didn’t think Ford was too old to play the action hero, and didn’t care about some of the negative buzz that surrounded the film after its worldwide premiere at Cannes.
In Variety, Paramount prexy of worldwide marketing and distribution Rob Moore stated: "People were excited to see Harrison Ford in the role of 'Indiana Jones.' Steven Spielberg and George Lucas have consistently brought us entertainment that adults can come with their entire family to, and here's another spectacular example.”
Your Talkback on this Story