List of biggest opening weekends

What is notable about this list is that not many films released before the mid-to-late 1990s are on it. This is mainly because movies used to have small (by today's standards) opening weekends yet would go on to become blockbusters, whereas today, filmgoers tend to want to see the film when it first comes out, and for the most part, begin to lose interest in it after about its second weekend.

Perhaps the most important issue with this list is that it does not consider inflation whatsoever. For example, on the latter list, Return of the Jedi grossed about $23M on its opening weekend at 1983 pricing. However, using the consumer price index to adjust for inflation, the film grossed about $43M (2005 dollars), which would place it roughly halfway up this list. Due to the inherent instability of a monetary rating system, it could prove more accurate to rate films according by ticket sales rather than gross figures, but it definitely is more accurate to at least consider inflation.

Biggest worldwide openings

Main source: BoxOfficeMojo

Rank	Film	Year	Opening Weekend	Number of Countries
1	Spider-Man 3	2007	$381,660,892	109 countries
2	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	2007	$343,972,864	104 countries
3	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	2007	$332,715,157	46 countries
4	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	2005	$303,949,700	115 countries
5	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	2008	$272,150,927	57 countries
6	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	$250,000,534	30 countries
7	The Da Vinci Code	2006	$232,074,037	72 countries
8	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	$207,197,367	26 countries
9	War of the Worlds	2005	$203,061,125	82 countries
10	The Matrix Revolutions	2003	$201,390,000	111 countries
11	Iron Man	2008	$201,174,140	25 countries
12	The Dark Knight	2008	$199,711,483	20 countries
13	Transformers	2007	$191,659,373	12 countries
14	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	$189,946,212	16 countries
15	Spider-Man 2	2004	$189,364,483	31 countries
16	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	2005	$188,185,961	21 countries
17	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	2006	$182,270,554	9 countries
18	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	2002	$179,269,285	75 countries
19	X-Men: The Last Stand	2006	$179,012,790	84 countries
20	The Simpsons Movie	2007	$170,890,984	73 countries
21	The Matrix Reloaded	2003	$165,882,716	15 countries
22	X2	2003	$154,829,031	95 countries
23	The Day After Tomorrow	2004	$151,443,584	112 countries
24	King Kong	2005	$149,181,645	57 countries
25	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	2002	$147,857,488	11 countries
26	Shrek the Third	2007	$136,785,098	6 countries
27	Shrek 2	2004	$131,051,914	7 countries

Note: The number of countries the film was released in during its opening weekend is listed. Most films don't open in all markets at once, but expand worldwide during a couple of weeks. These figures are not for opening weekends, but figures from the opening to the first Sunday as most films don't open worldwide on a Friday. Figures before the year 2002 are not available.

Biggest opening weekends in the U.S. and Canada

Main source: IMDb

Rank	Film	Year	Opening Three Day Weekend
1	The Dark Knight	2008	$158,411,483
2	Spider-Man 3	2007	$151,116,516
3	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	2006	$135,634,554
4	Shrek the Third	2007	$121,629,270
5	Spider-Man	2002	$114,844,116
6	Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End	2007	$114,732,820
7	Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith	2005	$108,435,841
8	Shrek 2	2004	$108,037,878
9	X-Men: The Last Stand	2006	$102,750,665
10	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire	2005	$102,685,961
11	Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull	2008	$100,137,835
12	Iron Man	2008	$98,618,668
13	Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban	2004	$93,687,367
14	The Matrix Reloaded	2003	$91,774,413
15	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	2001	$90,294,621
16	Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets	2002	$88,357,488
17	Spider-Man 2	2004	$88,156,227
18	X2	2003	$85,558,731
19	The Passion of the Christ	2004	$83,848,082
20	Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones	2002	$80,027,814
21	I Am Legend	2007	$77,211,321
22	Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix	2007	$77,108,414
23	The Da Vinci Code	2006	$77,073,388
24	The Simpsons Movie	2007	$74,036,787
25	Austin Powers in Goldmember	2002	$73,071,188
26	The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2003	$72,629,713
27	The Lost World: Jurassic Park	1997	$72,135,785
28	300	2007	$70,885,301
29	Transformers	2007	$70,502,384
30	The Incredibles	2004	$70,467,623
31	Finding Nemo	2003	$70,251,710
32	The Bourne Ultimatum	2007	$69,283,690
33	The Day After Tomorrow	2004	$68,743,584
34	Planet of the Apes	2001	$68,532,960
35	The Mummy Returns	2001	$68,139,035
36	Ice Age: The Meltdown	2006	$68,033,544
37	Bruce Almighty	2003	$67,953,330
38	Quantum of Solace	2008	$67,528,882
39	Rush Hour 2	2001	$67,408,222
40	The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe	2005	$65,556,312
41	War of the Worlds	2005	$64,878,725
42	Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace	1999	$64,810,970
43	Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa	2008	$63,106,589
44	WALL-E	2008	$63,087,526
45	Hancock	2008	$62,603,879
46	Monsters, Inc.	2001	$62,577,067
47	Hulk	2003	$62,128,420
48	The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers	2002	$62,007,528
49	Kung Fu Panda	2008	$60,239,130
50	Cars	2006	$60,119,509

Opening weekend record holders in the U.S. and Canada

These are the films that, when first released, set the opening weekend record.

Year	Title	Opening weekend
1933	King Kong	$90,000
1939	Gone with the Wind	$945,000
1965	The Sound of Music	$3,212,764
1975	Jaws	$7,061,513
1978	Jaws 2	$9,866,023
1979	Star Trek: The Motion Picture	$11,926,421
1981	Superman II	$14,100,523
1982	Rocky III	$16,015,408
1983	Return of the Jedi	$23,019,618
1984	Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom	$25,337,100
1985	Rambo: First Blood Part II	$25,520,843
1987	Beverly Hills Cop II	$26,348,555
1989	Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade	$29,355,021
1989	Ghostbusters II	$29,472,894
1989	Batman	$40,505,884
1992	Batman Returns	$45,687,710
1993	Jurassic Park	$47,026,828
1995	Batman Forever	$52,784,433
1997	The Lost World: Jurassic Park	$72,132,785
2001	Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone	$90,294,621
2002	Spider-Man	$114,844,116
2006	Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest	$135,634,554
2007	Spider-Man 3	$151,116,516
2008	The Dark Knight	$158,411,483

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