Harrison Ford is back on the map, as Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull led the three-day weekend box office, finishing with an estimated $101 million take. Including its launch on Thursday, the four-day total came to $126 million.
The numbers could even be better than the estimate, based on the fact it increased in viewership on Saturday, rather than dropping from Friday, which is the usual reality for films. The film increased in viewers by 25 percent over Friday's numbers, making it highly probable estimates are low.
What all this probably implies is the film may have long legs, as it may be treated more as a family film than a sequel. This it the 11th film in history to open at over $100 million. It opened at 4,260 venues, the third largest release ever.
Finishing second was The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which was obviously hurt by the Indiana Jones opener, and was only able to garner $23 million in its second week. That's a pretty large 58 percent drop from its opening last week.
As we talked about last week, it also could be that people have grown tired of the children's fantasy genre based on books, as so many have failed recently. Usually a film launched the weekend before Memorial Day has more bounce, and it's too bad a good film like this isn't being seen by as many as thought.
Next week will be interesting to see if it falls slower, and has longer legs. Being a family film, it's surprising it has underperformed to the level it has. It won't draw near the audience its predecessor, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe did. It has earned $91.1 million so far domestically, and had a budget of $200 million. It may only reach about half of the domestic total Wardrobe reached, which enjoyed $291.7 million.
Iron Man had a decent weekend for its third frame, as it generated $20.1 million in revenue to end up in third place, dropping by 37 percent from last weekend. So far its domestic total is at $252.3 million. At this pace it could end up being one of the top 25 films of all time domestically, with the potential to finish over the $300 million mark.
The top ten for the weekend:
| 1 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | $101,000,000 |
| 2 | The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian | $23,032,000 |
| 3 | Iron Man | $20,147,000 |
| 4 | What Happens in Vegas | $9,000,000 |
| 5 | Speed Racer | $4,000,000 |
| 6 | Made of Honor | $3,400,000 |
| 7 | Baby Mama | $3,323,000 |
| 8 | Forgetting Sarah Marshall | $1,666,000 |
| 9 | Harold and Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay | $915,000 |
| 10 | The Visitor | $781,000 |
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