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Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull debuts big in America

Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull

Story by Jack Foley

INDIANA Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull has opened in America as strong as predicted with an estimated $126 million since opening on May 22.

The figures include an estimated $101 million between Friday and Sunday, which came after a first-day Thursday gross of $25 million.

The film’s distributor Paramount also predicted a $25 million haul for holiday Monday, which would give the Indy sequel a very healthy five-day income of $151 million.

If the estimates are realised, then Indiana Jones & The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull could surpass the previous best-ever opening weekend posted by Spider-Man 3 last year, which hit the $151.1 million mark.

Although it will probably fall short of the $172.8 million gross of another George Lucas production, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, which enjoyed the highest-grossing first five days of any picture debuting on a Thursday before a non-holiday weekend in May 2005.

Global box office

The long-awaited fourth Indiana Jones adventure also ruled the international boxoffice over the weekend, where it took an estimated gross of $143 million.

According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, The Crystal Skull finished No. 1 in all major markets with the film taking $21.5 million over four days in the UK; $14.1 million from France; $12.6 million from Germany, and $11.7 million from Spain.

In Australia, it amassed $9 million while in Russia it took $8.4 million.

Elsewhere in the States

Of the other big blockbusters hoping to coin it in over the Memorial Weekend, Disney’s The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian was anticipated to have enjoyed a Friday-Sunday gross of $23 million, which represented a 58% drop from the opening weekend.

It means that the Walden Media co-production should have amassed a 10-day total of $91.1 million since opening – although the figures have not been as high as predicted prior to release.

Iron Man continued to go from strength to strength, however, producing an estimated three-day haul of $20.1 million and an estimated $25.6 million through Monday.

If correct, the film will have made $257.8 million since opening, making the Robert Downey Jr action-vehicle – co-distributed by Marvel and Paramount – 2008’s highest-grosser to date.

Read our verdict on Iron Man