The following is a list of the highest-grossing opening weekends for films. The list is dominated by recent films due to steadily increasing production and marketing budgets, and modern films opening on more screens. Another contributing factor is inflation not being taken into account.
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Biggest worldwide openings since 2002
This list charts films that had openings in excess of $200 million worldwide. Since films do not open on Fridays in many markets, the 'opening' is taken to be the gross between the first day of release and the first Sunday following the movie's release. Figures prior to the year 2002 are not available.
This list does not take into account country-by-country variations in release dates. Therefore, in some cases opening weekend grosses from many, or even most countries may not be included.
Biggest opening weekends in the U.S. and Canada
A list of films that grossed in excess of $100 million between the first Friday and first Sunday of release.
Opening weekend record holders in U.S. and Canada
These are the films that, when first released, set the opening three-day weekend record after going into wide release.
Biggest opening day in the U.S. and Canada
A list of films that grossed in excess of $50 million on the first day of release.