It's strange to say "Happy Memorial Day weekend," considering the serious holiday. But it is known to be a big weekend for movie openings, and it's been a pretty happy weekend so far for Aladdin. The 2019 remake topped the weekend box office and, depending on how things go tomorrow (Monday, May 27), it has a strong chance of joining the list of Top 4-Day Memorial Day Weekends.
Aladdin has already cracked the top 10 Memorial Day weekend openings just from three days, but does it have a chance at the top 5? Here are the current top five, with this list just covering the domestic box office from the four-day Memorial Day weekend openings in their respective years:
1. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Opening weekend: $139,802,190
The third film in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise came out May 25, 2007 and really broke the bank, at least at first. This is the most a film has made over Memorial Day weekend to date. Critics were harsh on At World's End, but fans embraced it with scores/grades and money. When all was said and done, it's total domestic and foreign gross was $963,420,425. That's certainly impressive, but it still placed it third on the list of Pirates movies, behind Dead Man's Chest and On Stranger Tides, which both cracked $1 billion worldwide.
2. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Opening weekend: $126,917,373
There were high hopes and expectations for the fourth Indiana Jones movie, which opened May 22, 2008. The movie was met with mixed reviews, and ultimately made $786,636,033 worldwide. There are more measured hopes, I'd say, for Indiana Jones 5, which is taking forever to get off the ground. But better to take the time to get it right than rush, I suppose.
3. X-Men: The Last Stand
Opening weekend: $122,861,157
As you can see, sequels rule when it comes to Memorial Day weekend. Once you've successfully launched a franchise, you can use the holiday weekend to serve eager fans the sequels. The Last Stand was the third movie in the X-Men film series, directly following X2. It came out in May 26, 2006 and faced mixed reviews -- which happens a lot when expectations are high. Ultimately, it made $459,359,555 total worldwide.
4. Fast & Furious 6
Opening weekend: $117,036,995
Fast & Furious 6 opened on May 24, 2013 to strong reviews. The first four movies in the franchise weren't embraced by critics, but it helped that Fast 6 came off the heels of Fast Five, which got even better reviews and was credited with injecting new life into the franchise. Worldwide, Fast 6 made $788,679,850, which puts it third overall behind Furious 7 and The Fate of the Furious (aka Fast 8).
5. X-Men: Days of Future Past
Opening weekend: $110,576,604
Yep, another X-Men. If we kept going, you'd see X-Men: Apocalypse on this list at #11 too. If it ain't broke, don't veer from the Memorial Day opening. Dark Phoenix is coming in a couple of weeks, but apparently it wasn't up to the challenge of Memorial Day 2019. Days of Future Past came out May 23, 2014 as the sequel to X-Men: First Class. It ended up making $747,862,775 worldwide, which places it third on the worldwide charts behind the two Deadpool movies.
There's a solid chance Aladdin will kick X-Men: Days of Future Past off Box Office Mojo's Memorial Day chart (which is not adjusted for inflation), but we'll have to wait and see how the final four-day numbers come in. And then the whole list could be shaken up again in 2020.
