And the Box Office Breathes a Sigh of Relief

May 3, 2003

After a mediocre winter and a weak spring, summer has finally arrived with the release of X-Men 2. Estimates for Friday’s box office are in and if they hold up X-Men 2 will have the fourth largest single day of all time, at nearly $34 million. Compared to the first movie, X2 earned almost 60% more on it’s opening day. Granted, X-Men did drop more than 10% on Saturday and did have a weak multiplier. Both are bad signs for the success of the sequel. If X-Men United doesn’t have better legs than X-Men, it will still result in a $80+ million weekend and a nearly $250 million total box office. By tomorrow we will have a better idea on the its longevity.

The only other movie to open wide was The Lizzie McGuire Movie, which will easily beat my estimate with $18 million for the weekend. That estimate was already high compared to most other forecasts, so the better than expect box office is even more amazing. Expect to see a lot more of Hilary Duff in the future.

Despite the huge openings, this weekend is still lower than the same weekend last year. But with two better than expected opening the box office slump can be considered over.

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Filed under: X-Men 2