Box Office - 'Indiana Jones' Can't Beat Up a Bunch of Girls

We will have a new number one movie this weekend. Yesterday we reported that early indications suggested that Sex and the City was set to bring in $20 million or so on opening day. That number was wrong. The real total may be as high as $26 million, as Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, and the other one more than doubled up on Indiana Jones Friday, according to Box Office Mojo, clearing the way for Sex to have the biggest debut ever for a romantic comedy. The Strangers, the week's other release, which was hoping to make most of its $10 million-ish budget back this weekend, opened very strong as well, placing third on Friday with over $7 million in U.S. ticket sales. Iron Man has finally started to show signs of slowing down; with $3 million and change on Friday, the Marvel movie will do well to go a little north of $10 million in its fifth weekend of release, no doubt the last weekend it will place in the top five. The numbers aren't encouraging for Indiana Jones. After a $101 million weekend (the usual Friday - Sunday numbers, anyway), Kingdom of the Crystal Skull will probably slide to about $35 - $40 million this weekend, which will push it over $200 million total. However, the audience lost will be in the 60% range or more, a terribly precipitous drop for such an event movie. Last night, when we received word that Sex and the City was clearly going to do well, we said its per-screen average was just below the ranks of the real heavy hitters. And with the new estimates, it's right in the mix: Only Saturday's returns for Indiana Jones were higher on average, and with a strong Saturday, Sex and the City could equal the opening weekend averages for Iron Man. And because of its rather miniscule budget, by comparison, the $65 million Sex and the City - which could turn a profit by the end of the weekend - might be on its way to being one of the most profitable movie all summer.