"Spider-Man 2," starring Tobey Maguire as the web-swinging title character, opened on Wednesday and immediately broke opening-day box-office records by taking in $40.5 million, beating the record held by "Spider-Man" of $39 million.
"Iron Man 3," which stars Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow, opened Wednesday in mainland China and broke opening-day box office records.
"Return of the King" also broke opening-day records in Britain, Germany, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland and Belgium, according to New Line officials.
After a stellar launch, in which the first two movies broke opening-weekend records in 1979 and 1982, the "Star Trek" series slowed down, puttering along for much of the nineteen-nineties.
In China, where the film broke opening-day records and has now made $100m, takings have been boosted by the creation of a controversial special cut featuring local actors and scenes.
Casino Royale had its world premiere in London's Odeon Leicester Square on 13 April 1967, breaking many opening records in the theatre's history.
Following $3.1 million from midnight screenings on June 10, the film earned $47 million in its first weekend, with the $50.1 million total breaking the opening weekend record set by Batman Returns the year before.
PK actually had a relatively slow start on home turf – well under Happy New Year's record-breaking opening in October – but the film's quality and the controversy generated by the subject matter has seen it make up the gap in no time.
Isn't this an incredible message for the audiences of children who will watch the film (it had a record-breaking opening weekend), that the best way to experience true happiness is to also feel fear, and sadness, and other things their mothers tried so hard to hide?
Buttler enjoyed a prolific cricket record while at school, sharing a record-breaking opening partnership while at King's College, Taunton in 2008, and the following season his school lost only one of seventeen matches under his captaincy, and he was named 2010 Young Wisden Schools Cricketer of the Year.
We work so long and pour so much of who we are into our films, and then settle for a make-or-break opening and a short theatrical life.
