Indiana Jones' fourth outing scored the second biggest Memorial Day
holiday weekend launch in North America as Paramount's nostalgic
adventure brand rang up $311.1m in worldwide ticket sales.

The four-day $151.1m domestic haul has only been bettered over the
same holiday period by last year's $153m launch of Pirates Of The
Caribbean: At World's End, while $160m from international territories
(Clickhere for more)demonstrates the colossal power of day-and-date
releases when a studio demonstrates global vision.

Paramount sources cited young parents in the their 30s and 40s as the
key drivers here and must be very happy with themselves following a
new global opening record for a Viacom-owned studio and director
Steven Spielberg.

The previous mark of $202m was set by Spielberg's War Of The Worlds release through Paramount over July 4 weekend in 2005.

The result easily set a new franchise opening weekend record, and the
film should have little trouble overtaking Raiders Of The Lost Ark's
$242.4m final domestic tally to become the biggest in the series
within two weeks.

Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull marks the return of
a franchise that started with Raiders in 1981 and went on to gross
approximately $1.2bn worldwide by the time Harrison Ford hung up his
whip and fedora after The Last Crusade in 1989.

Ford reprises his role alongside original love interest Karen Allen as
he battles a Soviet foe played by Cate Blanchett. Shia LaBeouf and Ray
Winstone round out the key cast.

Prince Caspian in second place is several days away from $100m after a
$28.6m four-day haul elevated the running total to $96.7m after two
weekends. Indy's stablemate Iron Man performed solidly in third,
adding $25.7m for a terrific $257.8m cumulative total after four.

Fox's What Happens In Vegas and Universal's Baby Mama and Forgetting
Sarah Marshall have all fallen short of expectations and rank fourth
on $56.4m after three, sixth on $53m after five and eighth on $58.7m
after six weekends, respectively.

Next weekend's blockbuster-elect is Sex And The City through Warner
bros and starring the original TV cast of Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim
Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon.

Sony's horror film The Strangers with Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman also opens wide.


Estimated Top 10 North America May 23-26, 2008


Film (Dist)/Int'l dist/Est wkd gross/Est total to date
1 (-) Indiana Jones And The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull (Paramount)
PPI $126m $151.1m
2 (1) The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
(Buena Vista) WDSMPI $28.6m $96.7m
3 (2) Iron Man (Paramount) PPI/Various $25.7m $257.8m
4 (3) What Happens In Vegas (Fox) Fox Int'l $11.2m $56.4m
5 (4) Speed Racer (Warner Bros) WBPI $5.2m $37.4m
6 (6) Baby Mama (Universal) UPI $4.2m $53m
7 (5) Made Of Honor (Sony) SPRI $4.2m $39.9m
8 (7) Forgetting Sarah Marshall (Universal) UPI $2.2m $58.7m
9 (8) Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
(New Line/Warner Bros) NLI $1.2m $36.2m
10 (10) The Visitor (Overture) K5 Int'l $917,000 $4.6m

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