This weekend there is yet again only one new player on the field. Everyone else has wisely stayed away from the debut of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull [Read the CB Review] knowing that any other films would be crushed under the adventurer’s legendary weight.

Anticipation for the movie has been building at the box office. Even though this near-geriatric outing for Jones doesn’t stack up to greater predecessors like Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, the name alone has sent audiences flying to their internet connections to reserve tickets. MovieTickets.com has been reporting that as of this afternoon their pre-sales for Crystal Skull made up over 77% of their total sales for the weekend.

Even though critics have been kinder than they probably should to the movie (after all, just because it was destined for Indiana Jones to get older it doesn’t mean we wanted to see what it would look like) it really doesn’t matter what reviewers say. The nostalgia of the first three films is enough to get people into the seats no matter how unworthy a follow-up film it may be. Heck, even if someone had told me it was the worst movie ever I still would have gone just to hear John Williams get one more stab at writing another amazing Indiana Jones score.

So, with all this anticipation, will the movie achieve what no other film has this so far this year: break the $100 million opening weekend mark? Probably, but there’s a chance the film might have shot itself in the foot on that point.

As is his inexplicable habit, George Lucas is having the film released on Thursday. That means all those tickets bought by fans attending midnight screenings and opening day show won’t count towards the official weekend total. If you roll Thursday through Sunday together there’s no question that the movie will easily bust $100 million, but is there enough interest to sustain that level of success all the way through the full weekend? I’m inclined to say yes, but with the other major films that have underperformed this summer, I’m starting to wonder if things like rising gas prices won’t make a dent in the Crystal Skull as well.