‘X-Men’ sets Memorial Day record
‘Da Vinci,’ ‘Hedge’ also strong in huge weekend

Monday, May 29, 2006; Posted: 3:04 p.m. EDT (19:04 GMT)

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) — The “X-Men” mutants overpowered the human competition at the U.S. Memorial Day holiday box office in North America, as the final film in the comic-book trilogy logged the fourth-biggest opening of all time, according to studio estimates on Monday.

“X-Men: The Last Stand” earned $120.1 million in the four days since opening on May 26, distributor 20th Century Fox said on Monday, and set new records as the biggest Memorial Day holiday opener ever and the biggest debut so far this year.

“The Da Vinci Code” previously held the honors for the best opening of the year after launching last weekend to $77 million. It slipped to No. 2 with a four-day sum of $43 million and a total of $145.5 million, but remained the top film internationally. “Over the Hedge” was No. 3 in North America with $35.3 million, also down one spot. Its two-week total rose to $84.4 million.

“I think this puts to bed the notion that people don’t want to go to movies anymore,” Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations, told The Associated Press. “The combination of ‘Da Vinci Code’ and ‘X-Men’ proves that people really love to go to the movies, especially in the summer.”

Though, perhaps, not every movie.

While the “X-Men” franchise is on fire, Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible” series is on the ropes. “Mission: Impossible III” has grossed $115.8 million after four weekends. At the same stage in their cycles, 1996’s “Mission: Impossible” had earned about $145 million, and 2000’s “Mission: Impossible 2” $177 million.

For the current weekend, the new film earned $8.6 million, ranking at No. 4.

“Poseidon,” another expected blockbuster, finished behind “M:I 3,” earning $7 million in its third week. It’s grossed $45.2 million total, below the hopes of its studio, Warner Bros. That studio, like CNN, is a unit of Time Warner.

The Friday-to-Sunday haul for “X-Men: The Last Stand” was $103.1 million, revised down from the $107 million estimate released on Sunday. But the three-day sum still ranks No. 4 on the all-time list. The record for a film opening on a Friday is held by 2002’s “Spider-Man” ($115 million), followed by 2005’s “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith ($108.4 million) and 2004’s “Shrek 2” ($108 million).

The new film, whose returning cast of mutants includes British actors Patrick Stewart as the heroic Professor X and Ian McKellen as the evil Magneto, was directed by Brett Ratner, best known for the “Rush Hour” films.

“An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about global warming starring Al Gore, had a strong opening, taking in an estimated $365,787 from Friday to Monday at four theaters in New York and Los Angeles.

Fox, a unit of News Corp., licensed the comic book franchise from Marvel Entertainment Inc. “The Da Vinci Code” was released by Columbia Pictures, a unit of Sony Corp. Viacom Inc.’s Paramount Pictures released both “Over the Hedge” and “Mission: Impossible III.”

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