X-Men: Days of Future Past had a powerful but not record-breaking opening at the North American box office this weekend, grossing an estimated $90.7m over the first three days of the four day Memorial Day holiday weekend.

X-Men: Days Of Future Past

The domestic take was less impressive than the $171.1m the seventh X-Men film took internationally this weekend, the biggest opening ever for Fox International, beating previous record holder Avatar. The resulting worldwide tally of $261.8m made Days of Future Past the biggest global opener of all the X-Men films and Fox’s second biggest global opener, after Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith.

The domestic gross (which came from 3,996 North American cinemas, for a per-cinema average of $22,698) places the film (made in association with Marvel Entertainment) as the fourth biggest three day opener of the year so far and the second biggest three day opener in the X-Men series. The franchise’s third entry, X-Men: The Last Stand, opened over Memorial Day weekend in 2006 with $102.8m domestically over three days and $124m over four and went on to take $234.4m domestically. 

With director Bryan Singer returning to the franchise and a cast including Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen and Jennifer Lawrence, Days of Future Past got positive reviews and easily beat the $53.1m opening of last year’s X-Men film
The Wolverine.

Warner Bros’ Blended had a much weaker than expected opening, taking $14.2m from 3,555 theatres (average - $4,007) for third spot in the North American top ten.

The romantic family comedy reunites stars Adam Sandler (making his first film for Warner after a run at Sony) and Drew Barrymore and their The Wedding Singer director Frank Coraci. It was panned by critics and fell well short of the $41.5m opening achieved last summer by Sandler’s ensemble outing Grown Ups 2. It did, however, beat the $13.5 summer 2012 debut of the comedian’s That’s My Boy.

Last week’s number one film Godzilla, also from Warner, dropped off 66.3% in its second weekend to take $31.4m from 3,952 cinemas (average - $7,952) for second place in the top ten and a domestic total to date of $148.8m.

Over its third weekend, Universal’s Neighbors was down a more modest 44.4% with $13.9m from 3,266 cinemas (average - $4,270), for a total of $113.6m and fourth spot on the chart.
 
Million Dollar Arm was down only 32.5% in its second weekend with $7.1m from 3,019 cinemas (average - $2,349), giving the Buena Vista release a total of $20.6m. Buena Vista estimated that the film will have taken $8.9m by the end of the four-day weekend.

Making a surprise entry into the top ten at number nine was Chef, the independent culinary comedy with Jon Favreau as star, writer and director. Distributed domestically by Open Road, the film expanded for its third weekend into 498 cinemas and took $2.3m (average - $4,538), for a total to date of $3.6m.

Next week’s wide releases are Buena Vista fantasy Maleficent, with Angelina Jolie starring, and Universal’s cowboy comedy
A Million Ways to Die in the West, starring and directed by Seth MacFarlane.

Estimated Top 10 North America May 23-25 2014
Film (Dist) / Est wkd gross / Est total to date

1 (-) X-Men: Days of Future Past (Fox-Marvel) Fox International $90.7m –

 2 (1) Godzilla (Warner Bros-Legendary Pictures) WBPI $31.4m $148.8m

 3 (-) Blended (Warner Bros) WBPI $14.2m –

 4 (2) Neighbors (Universal) UPI $13.9m $113.6m

 5 (2) The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (Columbia Pictures) SPRI $7.8m $184.9m

 6 (4) Million Dollar Arm (Buena Vista) WDSMPI $7.1m $20.6m

 7 (5) The Other Woman (Fox) Fox International $3.7m $77.8m

8 (7) Rio 2 (Fox) Fox International $2.5m $121.6m

9 (-) Chef (Open Road) Aldamisa Entertainment $2.3m $3.5m

10 (6) Heaven Is For Real (TriStar) SPRI $2m $85.8m