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'X Men 3' Hits History Books
"X Men 3: The Last Stand" took in almost $45 million on Friday and landed in the history books. It is now the second highest opener of all time, right behind "Star Wars: Attack of the Sith."
Insiders are predicting that the Brett Ratner directed third episode in the X Men trilogy could do as much as $150 million over the four day Memorial Day weekend. Word of mouth and "tracking" are so strong that "X Men 3," with no real rivals, should shatter all kinds of records by time the numbers are in officially on Tuesday.
Meantime, audiences may be cooling off to normal levels for "The Da Vinci Code." After a monster first weekend, Friday night's numbers--a respectable $10.2 million--were off by two thirds from a week ago when the movie opened. "Da Vinci" could still have a very good weekend, and luckily it made its money back with that strong start.
Moviegoers remain lukewarm about "Mission Impossible 3" and the really disastrous "Poseidon," both of which are now distant also-rans in the weekend race.
For Ratner, whose successes have included two "Rush Hour" movies and "Hannibal," the X Men blast off is quite a success story. He narrowly escaped making "Superman Returns" instead, a movie that is now being billed as the most expensive ever made, and could have a lot of problems.
"X Men 3" was not cheap to make. With a ticket of $225 million, it also sets a record as maybe second most expensive ever. But with a first weekend like this, 20th Century Fox should see a nice return before too long.
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