Can Indy 4 break Spidey’s box office record?

That’s the big question. Will ‘Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull’ do an ‘Iron Man’ or ‘Prince Caspian’ weekend. The last one, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian,’ had much lower opening than what initial tracking indicated. ‘Iron Man’ however, surprised the industry by breaking $100 million in the US during the first couple of days.
Tracking numbers for ‘Indiana Jones 4′ are good, but will it be able to top the opening of ‘Spider-man 3′ last year? The comic book hero made over $151 million in its first weekend, beating the $136 million opening by ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ in 2006.
The first two ‘Indiana Jones’ movies didn’t even cross the $200 million bar domestically during their total running time. But the first ‘Indiana Jones’ only cost $28 million and the second $48 million. The new ‘Indiana Jones’ movie is rumored to cost anywhere between $125 and $200 million to produce. Including marketing and distribution, the movie has to make $400 million before Harrison, Spielberg and Lucas will get paid.
I’m guessing that the studios will get their money back on this eagerly anticipated sequel. I’m guessing that Lucas and Spielberg can wait for their “cut” of the profits a little longer than some other folks.