Biggest summer movie openings

While Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince turned in a remarkable opening weekend — grossing more than $158 million in U.S. box office alone — “weekend” has become open to interpretation in terms of movie-making one-upsmanship.

Normally, movies open on Friday, giving the film three days to rack up sales. Recently, however, anticipated blockbusters debut earlier in the week, skewing comparisons to titles going the more conventional route.

Prince, for instance, opened on a Wednesday and did much of its business in the first few days. Its Friday-Sunday haul of just over $77 million would rank it only 20th among the biggest summer debuts of all time.

Which movies hold the top spots?

Here’s the list, according to boxofficemojo.com.

1. The Dark Knight — $158,411,483 (7/18/08)
2.  Spider-Man 3 — $151,116,516 (5/04/07)
3.  Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest — $135,634,554 (7/07/06)
4.  Shrek the Third — $121,629,270 (5/18/07)
5.  Spider-Man — $114,844,116 (5/03/02)
6.  Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End — $114,732,820 (5/25/07)
7.  Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen –$108,966,307 (6/24/09)
8.  Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith — $108,435,841 (5/19/05)
9.  Shrek 2 — $108,037,878 (5/19/04)
10.  X-Men: The Last Stand — $102,750,665 (5/26/06)

To see the rest, and to catch more cool movie lists, visit boxofficemojo.com.