Mutant maniacs stormed the multiplexes across North America on Friday and powered X-Men: The Last Stand to a jaw-dropping estimate of $44.5M giving the super hero sequel the second largest opening day gross in box office history. Including sold-out midnight shows from Thursday night, the mammoth figure trails only Star Wars Episode III (another Fox franchise film) which debuted to a record $50M on a Thursday last May. The newest X-Men installment now holds the record for the biggest Friday opening day ever beating the $40.1M of last November's Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire.

Reteaming the popular cast from the past including Hugh Jackman, Halle Berry, Ian McKellen, Rebecca Romijn, and Patrick Stewart, X-Men: The Last Stand averaged a scorching $12,000 per theater in 3,689 sites in its first day of release. Most films would kill for that average over a three-day weekend. With the lucrative Memorial Day weekend getting off to an explosive start, the mutant flick should easily demolish the nine-year-old opening weekend record for this holiday frame which was set back in 1997 with Steven Spielberg's The Lost World. That year, the much-anticipated dinosequel shattered all records leaping past the previous opening weekend record (1995's Batman Forever with $52.8M) with a four-day tally of $92.7M (including Thursday night shows). The Jurassic Park sequel grossed an eye-popping Friday-to-Sunday take of $72.1M showing the film industry numbers it never thought were possible.

Since the third X-Men installment is taking advantage of a fiercely loyal built-in audience, it is likely to see its opening Friday become a large percentage of the overall weekend gross. However, with the Monday holiday, Sunday sales will play out almost like another Saturday for the entire industry. Three years ago, X2: X-Men United bowed to $31.2M on its opening Friday on its way to a giant $85.6M weekend during the first frame of May. Two years ago, Fox opened its effects-heavy actioner The Day After Tomorrow over Memorial Day weekend and saw its Friday figure account for 36% of the $68.7M three-day gross. Since X-Men has more upfront demand, it should pull in more of its audience in the first day.

That could put X-Men: The Last Stand on a course to pull in a towering $105-115M over just the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the holiday weekend. The four-day holiday tally would then be on a course to zoom past the $125M mark.

Since Wolverine and his pals scared away all rival studios, there were no other wide releases opening on Friday. Last weekend's number one film The Da Vinci Code fell to second place with an estimated $10.2M on Friday tumbling a sizable 66% from its opening day last week. Over the Friday-to-Sunday period, the Tom Hanks hit could find its way to $30-35M while over four days, the Sony smash might reach the neighborhood of $40M.

Families spent an estimated $7.6M on Friday for the animated comedy Over the Hedge to kick off its second weekend in theaters. Off only 32% from its opening day last Friday, the Paramount toon hopes to challenge Da Vinci for the second spot on the charts this weekend. Since Hedge's audience is more likely to come out on the days that kids have no school, it should surge higher on Saturday and post solid numbers for Sunday and Monday too. For the Friday-to-Sunday portion of the holiday frame, Over the Hedge could approach the $30M mark and its four-day tally might shoot to $35-40M.

For a NEW review of X-Men: The Last Stand, visit The Chief Report.

Be sure to check back on Monday for the complete four-day holiday weekend box office report featuring official studio estimates.

Last Updated: May 27, 2006 at 1:15PM EDT

Written by Gitesh Pandya