Five-day cume estimated at $151 mil
Paramount's "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" has dug up an estimated $126 million since its opening at 12:01 a.m. Thursday.
That includes an estimated $101 million in Friday-Sunday coin, which followed a first-day Thursday gross of $25 million. Par also projected a $25 million haul for Monday, which would give the first Indy sequel in 19 years a five-day cume of $151 million.
Once tallies are in for the entire Memorial Day frame through Monday, the iconic adventure sequel will be measured against marks such as the $151.1 million tally posted by last year's "Spider-Man 3" in a best-ever weekend opening.
"Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith" enjoyed the highest-grossing first five days of any picture before or since, registering $172.8 million after debuting on a Thursday before a non-holiday weekend in May 2005.
Data service Nielsen EDI recognizes only three- and four-day opening weekends, including holiday-lengthened sessions. So for the record books, "Skull" will have its Friday-Monday total stacked up against opening-weekend bows topped by the Spidey sequel.
Produced by Lucasfilm and distributed by Par, "Skull" bowed Thursday with grosses ranking well down on a list of best opening days topped by "Spider-Man 3," which featured a first-day Friday gross of $59.8 million.
"Sith" is still the best-ever Thursday opener, with $50 million in first-day boxoffice.
The Indy sequel registered an estimated $37 million on Saturday, the first session offering the opportunity to fatten "Skull" grosses with robust family business. Par estimated its Sunday haul at $33 million.
Elsewhere Sunday, Disney was projecting a Friday-Sunday gross of $23 million for its family-fantasy sequel "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian." Disney didn't project a Monday gross for the pic.
The Friday-Sunday tally represented a 58% drop from the opening weekend for "Prince Caspian." The Walden Media co-production, which is expected to finish in second place through Monday, toted a 10-day cume of $91.1 million through Sunday.
And in the frame's bonze-medal position, the Par-distributed Marvel pic "Iron Man" produced an estimated three-day haul of $20.1 million and an estimated $25.6 million through Monday. The holiday-bolstered coin would yield a cume of $257.8 million for "Iron Man," by far 2008's best-grossing movie to date.
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