By Steve Gorman
That tally ranks as the fourth highest-grossing Thursday
debut on record and bodes well for a movie industry looking to
"Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" to help
shake the movie business out an early summer slump.
But analysts were divided over whether the highly
anticipated adventure flick from Viacom Inc's Paramount
Pictures is on track to overtake last year's "Pirates of the
Caribbean" film as the biggest opening on a U.S. Memorial Day
holiday weekend.
"Crystal Skull," directed by Steven Spielberg, is the
fourth movie in the beloved and lucrative movie franchise that
began in 1981 with "Raiders of the Lost Ark," and is the first
to hit the big screen in 19 years.
The three previous "Indy" movies have collectively grossed
more than $1.2 billion in ticket sales worldwide.
In the latest film, Ford, 65, reprises his title role as
the bullwhip-cracking archeologist who hates snakes, and is
reunited with actress Karen Allen, his co-star from the first
adventure. Set during the 1950s Cold War era, the story pits
him against an evil KGB agent played by Cate Blanchett in a
race to find a skull endowed with mystic powers.
Box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media
By Numbers, said the film's opening Thursday performance was
robust enough without being so strong as to diminish its
weekend audience.
If its Friday-through-Monday box office tally crosses the
$140 million mark, the film would exceed last year's Walt
Disney Co's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" as the
biggest North American opening yet for the four-day Memorial
Day holiday weekend.
"They have a strong shot at meeting or exceeding that
Pirates of the Caribbean number last year," Dergarabedian said.
Brandon Gray, president of online tracking service Box
Office Mojo, disagreed.
"We just don't have enough previous data to say what this
$25 million indicates," he said, noting that few potential
blockbusters have opened on the Thursday before a four-day
holiday weekend.
Unlike the new "Indiana Jones" film, "Iron Man" was fully
financed by Marvel Studios, which paid Paramount a flat fee to
market and distribute its film. Thus, Paramount has much more
at stake riding on the success of its latest release.
Reuters/Nielsen
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