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MONDAY AM: It’s officially a mega-hit for adventurer Indiana Jones after a 19-year hiatus. The 10th biggest Friday-through-Sunday in the U.S. of all time, the 5th biggest international opening of all time, Steven Spielberg’s biggest opener (passing War Of The Worlds), and George Lucas’s second best opener behind Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith. 
This tentpole kept going strong all weekend despite the very mixed morning-after watercooler talk about whether the actioner was even worth watching — leading many Indy faithful to complain that Spielberg and Lucas just phoned it in. (But my sources maintain the filmmaking duo thought they’d made a good pic. Go figure.) The North American box office gross on Paramount’s Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull will be $151M for the 5-day Memorial Weekend (Thursday’s $25M, Friday’s $31M, Saturday’s $37M, and Sunday’s $33M as well as Monday’s expected $25M), $26M for the 4-day holiday, and $101M for FSS.
Internationally, Paramount’s Indy 4 is also piling up the box office gross. The foreign estimate through Monday is expected to be $160 million — shattering the record for Paramount’s best overseas opening previously held by the opening of Spielberg’s War Of The Worlds ($102M). So, with North America’s $151M total take through Monday, that’s a $311M worldwide haul.
In second place for the 3-day weekend was Disney/Walden’s successful sequel The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian whose gross fell 58% from a week ago to a big $23M for FSS from 3,929 venues and $28.6M for the 4-day holiday for a new cume of $96.6M. (See below for the Top 10 chart.) It’s now taken in $49.3M overseas from 13 territories which represents an 11% increase over Narnia 1. The 3rd spot was another Paramount actioner, Marvel’s Iron Man, with $20.1M for FSS from 3,915 runs and $25.6M for the 4-day holiday for a giant new cume of $257.8M.
Indy‘s PG-13 fourquel opened at 12:01 AM Thursday into 4,260 theaters in North America and also day and date in 61 foreign territories (except Japan). Paramount saw some weakness in the tracking among teens. But that was made up for by nostalgia among adults: the problem is that those older moviegoers generally wait until the 2nd or 3rd weekend to screen a flick. And then there was the hot button issue of the film’s story quality, or lack there-of. In the end, none of these concerns mattered: Indy 4 kept piling up the box office dollars.
Here are the records Indy 4 couldn’t beat: The best 5-day opening ever was the humongous $172.8M recorded by 2005′s Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge Of The Sith. That pic also scored the best Thursday take of $50M; then again that pic finished out the prequel trilogy. The best Memorial Day Weekend was posted last summer by Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World’s End which also completed a trilogy; its 4 1/2-day opening posted $153.0M and its 5 1/2-day figure was $160.8M. Still another number to consider is what Spider-Man 3 did during its first 5 consecutive non-holiday days last May: $169.4M. Globally, the record number floating around is a high-wire act of $400+M for summer 2007, when both Spider-Man 3 and Pirates 3 sparred over which set the worldwide debut total. But Pirates 3 opened day and date in over 100+ foreign territories.)
Informed guesstimates from my box office gurus before the film opened ranged from a North American low of $142 million to a high of $175 million. I thought the answer lay somewhere inbetween — around $160M. Then again, that’s not taking into account how movie theaters are raising ticket prices by a dollar or two this summer because popcorn is more expensive. (According to news reports, next year’s corn stocks are expected to plunge to a 13-year low, corn-futures contracts have soared to an all-time high, and the sudden demand for ethanol will claim 40% of next year’s corn crop. Even the paper for the popcorn tubs is more expensive. So the profit margins at theaters which rely on concession sales for as much as 45% of their revenue are desperate to make up the difference.) Also, major theaters in cities are starting to charge the same for children as adults. The result is that Indy 4‘s grosses fattened while filmgoers’ finances thinned. No wonder the public feels increasingly ripped off at the cineplex.
Here’s the Top 10 chart as of Sunday AM:
1. Indiana Jones 4 (Paramount) — 3-Day Wkd: $101M, 4-day holiday $126M, Cume: $151.1M
2. Chronicles of Narnia 2 (Disney) – 3-Day Wkd: $23M, 4-day holiday $28.6M, Cume: $96.6M
3. Iron Man (Paramount) — 3-Day Wkd: $20M, 4-day holiday $25.6M, Cume: $257.8M
4. What Happens In Vegas (Fox) — 3-Day Wkd: $9M, 4-day holiday $11.1M, Cume: $56.3M
5. Speed Racer (Warner Bros) — 3-Day Wkd: $3.9M, 4-day holiday $5.2M, Cume: $37.4M
6. Baby Mama (Universal) — 3-Day Wkd: $3.3M, 4-day holiday $4.2M, Cume: $53M
7. Made Of Honor (Sony) — 3-Day Wkd: $3.4M, 4-day holiday $4.2M, Cume: $39.8M
8. Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) — 3-Day Wkd: $1.6M, 4-day holiday $2.1M, Cume: $58.7M
9. Harold and Kumar 2 (Warner Bros) — 3-Day Wkd: $915K, 4-day holiday $1.2M, Cume: $36.1M
10. The Visitor (Overture) — 3-Day Wkd: $781K, 4-day holiday $917K, Cume: $4.5M
(Photo of Spanish tourists exiting an Indy 4 screening in Los Angeles by Jim Stevenson.)
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Learn to read Bob
Mr. Wee Wee sez “You go girl and vote Obama!” Mr. Wee Wee likes Indy and Barrack in a Armani suit! You go girl!
It might be better not to compare it to any of the movies that Nikki came up with but to compare it the Star Wars: Episode I. SWEI, had a very long gap from the time Return of the Jedi came out and when SWEI came out. Same story family but two different eras. By comparing it to that, you may come up with better projections for what this 5 day run might be for IJ4. However, like Socratores stated, it is pointless trying to guess…just wait until Monday.
Don’t you just love the flame throwing commentators? Poor mouthing a Raiders’ film is just sour grapes from a grumpy person.
Not sure what movie you guys viewed, I thought it was great and teen has gone twice already.
Crystal Skulls will clearly not reach any kind of 5-day Memorial Day Weekend record, and I say great! When will Hollywood’s libtards realize we in the heartland are tired of sass-talking archaeologists who antagonize the United States Government? All that time spent traveling overseas – what’s the matter, Indy? America’s treasures not good enough for you? Here’s a thought, Hollyweird: make a movie where Indy signs up for an extended Afghanistan tour of duty. Sure, he’s killed his share of foreigners in the previous movie – but never for LIBERTY! He wants to find mythical artifacts? Fine, let him dig for WMDs in Syria!
Long live Indy, and steve bayzoe too!
I saw the movie last evening with my family and cannot fathom how one would deem the film “unwatchable”?
I thought it was a great adventure with a reasonably typical Indy story-line. The action is non-stop and everyone in my family enjoyed it: my wife (hardsell to be sure), and my 17 and 11 year old sons alike.
Is not a trip to the movies supposed to be a break from reality? I view this as a thrill-ride and it is successful as such. If you like the Indy-franchise at all– this movie will not let you down. “Curious”…your comments make me think you’re a stuffed shirt and I find you them most “curious”. Can’t please everyone of course.
Nikki: When is Hollywood gonna wake up and make you the head of a studio? Hmm. UA needs help. I think there’s a strong interest in Indy 4 across the board. The audience I saw it with was about 30% female, and most of them high school age. And many were not with dates; the row in front of me had eight young women, all friends, out to see–Shia LaBeouf. I don’t know what his reputation is on the Left Coast, but LaBeouf’s entrance on the motorcycle got big applause. The box office numbers might be critical for analysts and studio heads whose jobs depend on them, but the average moviegoer cares only about whether the pic “is any good.” I think the big test for “Crystal Skull” will come next week with the bow of “Sex and the City.” Fanboys might flock once again to the Spielberg flick, even at ten bucks a pop, but I expect SATC will do healthy business among women as this summer’s “The Devil Wears Prada.” Ultimately, “Skull” will do well in the next few weeks, but will be crowded out by “Dark Knight,” “Hancock” and “Kung Fu Panda.” “Panda” will be huge. “Get Smart” and “The Love Guru” look like this summer’s stool samples.
Saw “Indy & the Skull” at a sparsely attended screening, so perhaps my experience would have been better with a packed theater of paying filmgoers eager for a good ride, but my feeling is that this movie will be hard-pressed to pass $220 once word of its mediocrity gets out. This is a summer picture everyone will see once.
But only once. It’s like a reassuring dinner with old friends who you’ve not seen in years, so it’s fun to hang out with them as a special occasion. But times have changed, so have they and so have you, and there’s not any strong urge to repeat the experience.
Indy 4 starts with much promise, but quickly becomes boring and repetitive of both itself and the other pictures. The first half hour is far and away the best section, with the opening in Area 51 and the nuke blast escape. But it all too soon gets bogged down in exposition and increasingly over the top action sequences. I was willing to tag along (barely) for the motorcycle fight/escape, but the sword fight on the jeeps in the jungle, followed by the incredibly stupid Tarzan-like escape by Mutt was beyond the palatable. As the plot escalates, Indy becomes more and more a bystander instead of an instigator, and the effects are mere spectacle without emotional resonance. Not enough whip action, either.
Ford is still good in the role, however. It’s not his fault, and when he’s on the screen the movie managed to hold my attention. But he’s lost in the relentlessness of the last 45 minutes, and bogged down with all the characters tagging along. And the alien stuff felt shoehorned in.
It’s a servicable escape from reality for two hours, but nothing more. It’s certainly no “Die Hard 4,” which still stands as the best of the resuscitated heroes popcorn pictures from the past few years, and better than the first two “Star Wars” sequel/prequels, but that’s saying almost nothing.
Can we all start to talk about George Lucas and the creative kiss of death? The guy’s ratio of good to bad movies is becoming perilous. I’m not even talking about the Indy sequels or the Star Wars prequels. Remember “Willow”? “The Radioland Murders”?
Abhishek, your completely out of touch with what people are excited for, this is a genre(adventure films) that’s almost completely untouched, and people are longing for it, everyone involved is still well loved. And people still love indy, I don’t care how long it’s been. And honestly times have changed but that’s helped indy, people are more into the blockbuster films these days then just any old film coming out. Indy has been successfully painted as a blockbuster, it’s been well received by critics(79% on Rottentomatoes) it’s selling tickets weeks in advance playing on tons of screens, there is nothing stopping this film breaking 300 million.
I’ve been waiting for someone to make a comment like Socratores’! It is strange, isn’t it? I’m old enough to remember when the general public not only didn’t know box-office numbers, they didn’t care. It was considered boring. A film was either a ‘big hit’ or it wasn’t… that was the extent of most people’s interest. The figures themselves were hard to come by; well anything like that in the pre-internet days was. I don’t know that they were as closely guarded as, say, the Nielsen/Soundscan sales numbers are today, but you definitely had to know where to look and who to ask. Now the f****** newspapers print a detailed top ten list every Monday! I sometimes wonder if the average person really IS that interested.
Anyway, back to Indy. It’s probably true that the audience skews older and so it might be mildly disappointing in its opening weekend numbers, but it’s still going to make a lot of money; I’m thinking somewhere around $300 mil. Purely anecdotal evidence indicates to me that this is the one summer film that most qualifies as a ‘must-see.’
Indy is the Best! Can’t get enough Indy Jones!!!
Hmmmmmm, I wonder if they take into consideration the cost of a ticket for the Star Wars movies to the price they are today? Would be interesting how that would compare.
Socratores – Because the executive producers as well as the studio find these numbers increasingly important to their bottom line. By historically tracking Day 1/Week 1 opening numbers, the cash guys can sleep at night knowing that they invested over $100 MIL for a film to be produced. Trust me – if you had invested the kind of coin it takes to produce one of these summer blockbusters, you would be tracking numbers from day 1 out of every theater demographic in Kansas.
I saw the film yesterday morning. The bad press is ridiculous…the film plays fine for a PG-13, action-adventure film which is a fourth installment of a film franchise created almost 30 years ago. If you have watched any of the prior-three films more than once or twice, you’ll appreciate this installment.
Saw it yesterday. Im a HUGE indy fan and thought the storylined seemed rushed, the character development was paper thin, and the plot line was WAY over the top. Wasnt impressed with the music either. John Williams is getting played out. At one point I swear part of the music was the EXACT same as minority report. bring something new to the table, please.
I would be interested in seeing how it fares demonatrated in inflation dollars compared to the original Raiders. I thought it was a GREAT movie! My teenage daughter is calling it her favorite movie afer one viewing. I never thought I’d see a patch-wearing Johnny Depp take a backseat to a whip toting Harrison Ford… but there you have it.
The movie was terrible. A bigger disappointment than the Phantom Menace.
My husband and I, ages 52 and 50, have been huge Indy fans since the originals. We went to the first show yesterday and are probably going a second time later this weekend with friends. The film isn’t GREAT but it is FUN and that includes its campier elements. There could be a lot of us 45+ types that have been waiting for a movie to really be excited about that will help push the $$$ higher than expected. For a workday (we took the day off) the audience was filled with people our age or so.
I saw it last night. This was the stupidest movie I have ever seen. Lucas and Spielberg have lost their minds. It was like a cartoon. A ten year old could have made this movie. It was almost like they forgot they weren’t making the X-files or something.
Saw it at a sold out show last night – crowd cheered, laughed and applauded…. I think it will do just fine. The emphasis on first weekend gross is getting a little stupid… Star Wars I, II & III were awful, 3 of the worst films ever, a tribute to wooden acting and shallow plotting. But hey, teenage boys loved it. I think Indiana Jones will make us oldsters very happy…it was loads of fun, and that’s what we were looking for. This film will have great legs…like its star!
I’d agree with the first post, that 140 mill over five days may be a stretch. Based upon your Thurs figures, I’d guess 100-110 mill for the five day period. Remember Iron Man, Caspian are still out there…
You’re so right. all this pontification is a big jerk-off. The movie is a hit. who cares about whether it’s bigger then….? Some people are obsessive about nothing.
Bob, maybe you can answer why hollywood doesn’t widely publish actual number of tickets sold instead of gross receipts. Or maybe they do and all the media only report the gross receipts.
I think it’s completely irrelevant that a film grossed $X in 2002 can be compared to a film grossing $Y today. Prices have gone up, and the number of screens film X played on in opening weekend versus movie Y can create a big difference. Hollywood has always assumed the public is stupid and will eat whatever they’re fed so it’s not surprise that they try to create more buzz by showing big $$$ figures instead of the real truth behind the numbers.
That’s a lot of disappointed people. It makes you wonder about the Frank Darabont script and the others because what ended up on screen is a real piece of junk. Spielberg and especially Lucas are reminiscent of two washed-up ballplayers who don’t know when to call it quits and end up embarrassing themselves. The CGI-heavy, labored “Crystal Skull” is surprisingly quite dull. Easily the worst of the four.