Easy win so for this thread I'll be up if only a little. This from
Box Office Guru.
Mutant maniacs stormed the multiplexes across North America on Friday and powered X-Men: The Last Stand to a jaw-dropping estimate of $44.5M giving the super hero sequel the second largest opening day gross in box office history. Including sold-out midnight shows from Thursday night, the mammoth figure trails only Star Wars Episode III (another Fox franchise film) which debuted to a record $50M on a Thursday last May. The newest X-Men installment now holds the record for the biggest Friday opening day ever beating the $40.1M of last November's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.
Since the third X-Men installment is taking advantage of a fiercely loyal built-in audience, it is likely to see its opening Friday become a large percentage of the overall weekend gross. However, with the Monday holiday, Sunday sales will play out almost like another Saturday for the entire industry. Three years ago, X2: X-Men United bowed to $31.2M on its opening Friday on its way to a giant $85.6M weekend during the first frame of May. Two years ago, Fox opened its effects-heavy actioner The Day After Tomorrow over Memorial Day weekend and saw its Friday figure account for 36% of the $68.7M three-day gross. Since X-Men has more upfront demand, it should pull in more of its audience in the first day.
That could put X-Men: The Last Stand on a course to pull in a towering $105-115M over just the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the holiday weekend. The four-day holiday tally would then be on a course to zoom past the $125M mark.
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If you can get the knack playing the US box office first weekend totals correctly, it's almost like getting free money.