The History of the Opening Weekend Record Holders (1980-current)

[baumer]

As we all know, the opening weekend is one of the most exciting times for us box office nerds.  We love seeing a film make gobs of money and the opening weekend is one of the best records to own.  At least that's the way it appears to me.  

 

The opening weekend has really taken off in the last 20 years.  Before, the opening weekend really wasn't as important as films had much stronger legs which of course means it had very lengthy runs.  For example, although it won't appear on this list, E.T. had one of the biggest opening weekends of all time, according to my research, it was the 2nd biggest opening weekend of all time at that point, in which it grossed over 11 million.  It went on to set the box office all time record with almost 400 million in it's first two runs. It was number one or number two for 19 straight weeks.  But I digress.  The point is that 30 years ago, the opening weekend was much less of a focus, where as the legs were much more important.

 

I'm going to write this article as if the forums existed back when these opening weekends took place.

 

Here is a list of every opening weekend record holder dating back to 1980.  I didn't look back further because the data isn't available on Mojo.  So here it is with a bit of analysis on each one.

 

If I have missed one, be kind, I compiled this list at 4AM.

 

Starting in 1980, The Empire Strikes Back grossed 10.4 million in it's 4th weekend so it doesn't really count as the opening weekend, but it's fourth weekend was it's first in wide expansion. The record holder before that was Jaws 2 which grossed 9.8 million in 1978.  So two years later, the record holder for the opening weekend was still JAWS 2 but the biggest weekend of all time was Empire Strikes Back.

 

In 1981, Superman II smashed the opening weekend mark by about 40% as it made 14 mill. Coming off the massive success of Superman, three years earlier, people flocked to the theaters to see the sequel.  This opening weekend would have caused a frenzy at the forums.  To eclipse the opening weekend by the amount that it did is nothing short of incredible.  

 

A year later, Star Trek II, the Wrath of Khan eclipsed the mark by almost a mere 200K as it grossed 14.3 million.  This was obviously another sequel to a very popular original film.  

 

In 1983 the first significant smashing of the opening weekend took place as Return of the Jedi absolutely annihilated the previous record by nine million which represents an uptick of almost 70%.  To put this in perspective, the next opening weekend record from now would have to open to 350 million to eclipse Avengers by the same % Jedi did Trek.  It is probably the biggest gap in opening weekend history.  To make the feat even more impressive, Jedi opened in 600 LESS theaters than Khan did.  Process that for a minute.  Jedi opened to 23 million.

 

A year later in 1984, George Lucas broke his own record as Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom opened to 25.3 million.  Star Wars and Indiana Jones were the two most popular series of films.  This also opened in a monstrous 1600 theaters.  The shift from leggy runs to opening weekends was now starting to show up.

 

Comedy wise, the 80's belonged to Eddie Murphy and this was never more evident than in 1987 when the sequel to the biggest R rated comedy of all time, Beverly Hills Cop 2 grossed 26.3 million.  This was a massive amount and of course highlighted by the fact that it was an R rated film.  Before this, the record holders were all pg films.  A R rated film owning the record holder would never happen today but 27 years ago was a different time.

 

Lucas struck again three years later as Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade opened on May 24th to 29.3 million.  But then two weeks later, Ghostbusters 2 took the record by 100K....yes, one hundred thousand.  And then, perhaps due this being the most anticipated film perhaps of all time, one week later, Tim Burton's Batman turned the box office upside down when it grossed a mind blowing 40 million in its first weekend.  While not quite the same as Jedi's 70% increase. it still took it by 37% over the previous film.  1989 is one of the most interesting in film history as the opening weekend record was set three times in three weeks.  That's quite unheard of.

 

In 1995, Batman again took the record as the sequel took in 45 million.  This was getting to be the franchise that took the box office by storm.  The Star Wars films were still king, but Batman's were the true dawning of the super hero dominance that we have today.  Batman Returns grossed 45 million.

 

In 1993, Spielberg struck again as a film 65 million years in the making not only got the opening weekend record, but it also became the all time highest grossing film of all time both domestically and WW.  Jurassic Park opened to 47 million.  Even more significant about Jurassic Park is that it was not a sequel.  No comic book history, no lightsabres, no sharks and no pointy eared men.  This was an original film to set the record.  

 

Two years later, Batman struck again, this time it became the first film to open to more than 50 million as Batman Forever, on the strength of it's star studded cast and curiosity of a new Batman, took the box office world by storm for the third time. 52 million was an incredible feat.

 

In 1997, another seismic event took place.  Jurassic Park 2 grossed a ridiculous 72 million dollars.  This was almost a 40% bump from the previous record holder.  Jurassic Park was the biggest film of all time and perhaps it was no surprise that the sequel became the biggest opening weekend by a landslide.  Although we are not really discussing legs, it has to be mentioned that this was a film that absolutely crumbled in the weeks to come.  Also of note is that two years later The Phantom Menace did not set the record like many thought it would.  This shows how big of an opening weekend Jurassic Park 2 really had.

 

Four years later, the start of the biggest series of films absolutely took the world by storm.  Not only did Potter take the record, it also became a world wide smash as it came very close to grossing a billion dollars.  Harry Potter would spend a decade on top of the box office and it started with Sorcerer's Stone grossing 90 million dollars. Shockingly, this record would not last more than 6 months.

 

In 2002, the sequel to Star Wars was coming out at the end of May.  But at the beginning of May Spider-man killed it by grossing a then unfathomable 114 million dollars.  A film to make it past 100 million in it's first three days was something not many could comprehend.  This is the first film I can clearly remember myself.  Potter's record is fuzzy to me, Spider-man's is not.  This killed the Mojo forums.  Shocking, unreal, amazing, take your pick.  A director best known for his low budget splatter fest Evil Dead, an actor not really best known for much and a comic book story that destroyed Batman,  This was essentially the start of Marvel's dominance.  

 

Four years later, the sequel to Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Man's Chest, grossed a huge 135 million dollars in the summer of 2006.  Finally a series of films that put Johnny Depp on the map.  Before this he was just basically a quirky good actor.  The Pirates films were unfathomably popular and they were great competition for the Spider-man franchise .  

 

One year later, the final Spider-man film, well, it at least should have been the final one, Spider-man 3, grossed an eye popping 151 million dollars.  It would also become famous for having a multiplier of just over 2.2.  This is much more common for today's blockbusters but in 2007, it wasn't really the norm.  Regardless of where this film ended up in gross, the opening weekend was one of the most talked about and debated, for years to come.

 

One year later, the comic book battle continued as The Dark Knight sent shock waves throughout our community as it grossed 158 million.  While many here predicted it to pass Spider-man 3, most professional prognosticators had it at around 125-130 million.  This is a film that was coming off a reboot that made 48 million dollars.  But when you take into consideration the Batman popularity from the past, the Joker story, the death of Heath Ledger and the Oscar talk about his performance before it came out, all made for a perfect tonic.  The Dark Knight is still one of the most interesting box office stories of the last decade.

 

In 2011, the final Harry Potter film, Deathly Hallows 2,  with the help of 3D (not to minimize its accomplishment, but it has to be mentioned) destroyed the opening day record tens of millions as it made an unheard of 91 million dollars in one day.  It went on to take in 169 million opening weekend.  It also grossed a massive 960 million dollars internationally.  But this is about opening weekend.  The 169 million was obviously significant for a plethora of reasons.  One: no other series of films maintained it's box office dominance as well as Potter did 8 films in.  It became the third film to gross more than 1.3 billion dollars WW and so on.  Potter can have books written about it that discusses its box office dominance.  The opening weekend of nearly 170 million was just one of those stories.

 

And finally, the Avengers in 2012 shocked us all when it grossed 207 million dollars opening weekend.  This is one of the greatest box office stories of all time imo as Marvel and Kevin Feige set the wheels in motion in 2008 with Iron Man.  Thor and then Captain America followed suit and all were successful in their own right.  They built their brand and finally, when they felt they were ready, they did something that no other film, with the exception of horror icons Jason and Freddy teaming up, did before them.  It took popular characters and put them into a movie together.  Not many of us thought it would do this well.  The exception of course was BKB.  

 

This wasn't really a piece to analyze the box office, just more of a recap.  

 

I'm really curious to see what is the next film to break the record.

 

Here's the list.

 

The Avengers:  207 mill 2012

DH2:  169 mill 2011

The Dark Knight:  158 mill 2008

Spider-man 3:  151 mill 2007

POTC DMC:  135 mill 2006

Spider-man: 114 mill 2002

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer;s Stone: 90 mill 2001

The Lost World Jurassic Park 2:  72 mill 1997

Batman Forever: 52 mill 1995

Jurassic Park :  47 mill 1993

Batman Returns: 45 mill 1992

Batman: 40 mill 1989

Ghostbusters 2:  29 mill 1989

Last Crusade:  29 mill 1989

Beverly Hills Cop 2:  26 mill 1987

Temple of Doom:  25 mill 1984

Return of the Jedi: 24 mill 1983

Star Trek II:  14 mill 1982

Superman II: 14 mill 1981

Empire Strikes Back: 10 mill 1980

Edited November 1, 2014 by baumer

[baumer]

I'm curious what you guys remember about the opening weekends.  What films do you remember fondly?

 

This is an opportunity for Noctis to gush over Potter.  

[CoolioD1]

ok.

[Kalo]

Great article! I was wondering what films broke the record prier to "Batman" 

[The Panda]

This is definitely interesting, what's most interesting is seeing the shift from legs to OWs

[druv10]

Great read Baumer. I think TA:AoU probably has the best chance to upend TA. 

[James]

I'm curious what you guys remember about the opening weekends.  What films do you remember fondly?

 

This is an opportunity for Noctis to gush over Potter.  

Or for me lol. Seriously talking though, I started following box office a few months before the final Potter opened so... I remember the only place I visited was BOM and I was waiting for Ray's weeky articles. And that weekend... I was honestly more stunned  by it's OS/WW OW. I rememember perfectly some of Ray's words about it's OS opening: "outpacing even the most generous prognostications DH2 opened to an incredible 314M' or smth like that. 

 

As for TA, that was the time of my exams for getting into law school + plus my highschool end exams so I wasn't really following BO that much. I just remember being pissed that it passed Potter

[Ethan Hunt]

at

Or for me lol. Seriously talking though, I started following box office a few months before the final Potter opened so... I remember the only place I visited was BOM and I was waiting for Ray's weeky articles. And that weekend... I was honestly more stunned  by it's OS/WW OW. I rememember perfectly some of Ray's words about it's OS opening: "outpacing even the most generous prognostications DH2 opened to an incredible 314M' or smth like that. 

 

As for TA, that was the time of my exams for getting into law school + plus my highschool end exams so I wasn't really following BO that much. I just remember being pissed that it passed Potter

Dat second weekend drop though ( domestic at least )

[baumer]

Quick recap:

 

Indy:  2X

Batman 4X

Spiderman: 2X

Potter:  2X

[Kalo]

I'm curious what you guys remember about the opening weekends.  What films do you remember fondly?

 

This is an opportunity for Noctis to gush over Potter.  

I remember exactly when I started paying attention to box office. it was when "Revenge of the Sith" came out. my most anticipated film of all time at the time (probably still 1# until Star Wars VII was announced) I really want "Sith" to break all records because. at the time I thought it was the best film of all time..and no film ever would take it's place.. I was 14 what can I say? (I actually still love it, bit it has some pretty big flaws)  after that an other film caught my interest  as far as I knew star wars was over.. at least for a while, so i had to have something else to fill my movie void. and the preview for it was attached to revenge of the Sith (which was my first and best midnight showing experience, it was also the first film I saw 3 times in theaters, I've only seen two more that many times actually, The Avengers and Man of Steel) anyways the Film was "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, which, me being a Gigantic Lord the Rings fan.. The Return of the King was the only film to be my 1# favorite film for a time in between Clones and Sith. Narnia was right up my ally I read all the books, and was so excited for it. and it had quite the Box office run itself opening to $65m in December only behind "King" at the time. and head extremely well making nearly $300m dollars domestically. after that I was hooked on Box office and have been ever Since.

[Ruthie]

Great subject, great read!  And another example of how my home viewing has changed things.  

[druv10]

Quick recap:

 

Indy:  2X

Batman 4X

Spiderman: 2X

Potter:  2X

 

Look how far SM has fallen. TASM2 barely made 200M and TASM3 total might not even beat SM3's OW. 

[Ethan Hunt]

Thank you for another excellent write up, baumer.

[DAJK]

Thanks for the awesome article Baumer!

I remember when I started following Box Office was the Sunday afternoon when BOM posted their weekend report for Wreck-It-Ralph. Before that day, the only knowledge I had of box office were the WW totals I read on Wikipedia, so I had absolutley no clue what the numbers for OW meant. No idea about how domestically vs overseas worked. Nothing.

A lot of research over the next week got me prepared for Skyfall. I was really looking forward to the movie, so I wanted to follow its box office run. I knew the 90M OW was good, but none of it really came Ito context until BOM said on one of their reports that Skyfall would easily surpass 250M, and could reach 900M WW. That's when I could put OW into context; about how an OW of 90M could lead to a billion dollar movie etc.

I keep telling myself that I wished I had started following Box Office before Avengers, so I could have been around for that 207M OW. If I'm not messing up my facts, the weekend estimates for Avengers was 200M exactly; so my question to all you guys was, what was your initial reaction? Did you think the 200 number would hold?

[Kalo]

Thanks for the awesome article Baumer!

I remember when I started following Box Office was the Sunday afternoon when BOM posted their weekend report for Wreck-It-Ralph. Before that day, the only knowledge I had of box office were the WW totals I read on Wikipedia, so I had absolutley no clue what the numbers for OW meant. No idea about how domestically vs overseas worked. Nothing.

A lot of research over the next week got me prepared for Skyfall. I was really looking forward to the movie, so I wanted to follow its box office run. I knew the 90M OW was good, but none of it really came Ito context until BOM said on one of their reports that Skyfall would easily surpass 250M, and could reach 900M WW. That's when I could put OW into context; about how an OW of 90M could lead to a billion dollar movie etc.

I keep telling myself that I wished I had started following Box Office before Avengers, so I could have been around for that 207M OW. If I'm not messing up my facts, the weekend estimates for Avengers was 200M exactly; so my question to all you guys was, what was your initial reaction? Did you think the 200 number would hold?

Yes I did, I was mind-blown, when I saw that number though.  the thing is when it came in they put the estimation lower like at $204m.. or was it even lower? I remember reading bo annalists were saying an opening of $150m.. which before I thought it would be bigger. not that big.. I do remember thinking when i first heard of Avengers being made that it would make $600m dollars.. back then lots of people were thinking Dark Knight Rises would take the cake for 2012.. haha that went well. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by KaloVisor

[Omario]

Good article Baumer

 

 

The weekend i remember most fondly was Spiderman 3 and the The Dark Knight. I remember punching the air when Spiderman smashed DMC record.  Pity about the movie itself though.

 

The biggest shock for me was TDK though. It was the most anticipated film for me since i loved Batman Begins so much. All the industry trackers pointed to 120mill max (that i saw anyway)with some being very conservative and saying 75-85mil. I remember it was only my sister saying to me 'wouldnt it be great if Batman beat Spidey.' I laughed it off and didnt think about it again. I just wanted it to be a success. I recall checking deadline on Friday for Thursday midnights and nearly screamed in shock and than when the 67mill opening day happened it was one of the most exciting things i had experienced. As for the full opening weekend and the incredible legs i think it just reflect the awesome quality of the film. Absolutely incredible run. 

Edited November 1, 2014 by Omario

[75Live]

I was alive for the whole list so I guess I can talk about all of them

 

But the one I remember first was Batman (89).  Not just due to the box office, it was everything around it since I was there opening weekend.  Then all the news afterwards about how the OW was going nuts just added to it.

 

I remember everything the day I saw the film but that's a whole story onto itself

[druv10]

Thanks for the awesome article Baumer!

I remember when I started following Box Office was the Sunday afternoon when BOM posted their weekend report for Wreck-It-Ralph. Before that day, the only knowledge I had of box office were the WW totals I read on Wikipedia, so I had absolutley no clue what the numbers for OW meant. No idea about how domestically vs overseas worked. Nothing.

A lot of research over the next week got me prepared for Skyfall. I was really looking forward to the movie, so I wanted to follow its box office run. I knew the 90M OW was good, but none of it really came Ito context until BOM said on one of their reports that Skyfall would easily surpass 250M, and could reach 900M WW. That's when I could put OW into context; about how an OW of 90M could lead to a billion dollar movie etc.

I keep telling myself that I wished I had started following Box Office before Avengers, so I could have been around for that 207M OW. If I'm not messing up my facts, the weekend estimates for Avengers was 200M exactly; so my question to all you guys was, what was your initial reaction? Did you think the 200 number would hold?

 

 

Thanks for the awesome article Baumer!

I remember when I started following Box Office was the Sunday afternoon when BOM posted their weekend report for Wreck-It-Ralph. Before that day, the only knowledge I had of box office were the WW totals I read on Wikipedia, so I had absolutley no clue what the numbers for OW meant. No idea about how domestically vs overseas worked. Nothing.

A lot of research over the next week got me prepared for Skyfall. I was really looking forward to the movie, so I wanted to follow its box office run. I knew the 90M OW was good, but none of it really came Ito context until BOM said on one of their reports that Skyfall would easily surpass 250M, and could reach 900M WW. That's when I could put OW into context; about how an OW of 90M could lead to a billion dollar movie etc.

I keep telling myself that I wished I had started following Box Office before Avengers, so I could have been around for that 207M OW. If I'm not messing up my facts, the weekend estimates for Avengers was 200M exactly; so my question to all you guys was, what was your initial reaction? Did you think the 200 number would hold?

Memories. That weekend was fucking epic. First Nikki with not a record jab at TA1.  Then Rth coming in with 70M+ OD than followed up with 80M projection when Nikki was still stuck on high 60's. That was the coming out party for Rth. 

[Ethan Hunt]

I wasn't following box office at the time that any of these occurred but I do remember, when TDK was released I was on vacation and I was sitting in the hotel Lobby watching the news when they started talking about it. Me being nine years old ( I think I was nine) was ecstatic just because they were talking about a movie on the news.

[Master Scottb]

I remember when The Lost World was the record holder, and it seemed like it held the record for a long time.