Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End earned $142.1 million over the 4-day Memorial Day weekend totally eclipsing X-Men: The Last Stand's previous mark of $122.9 million.  Pirates was shown on over 11,000 screens, a domestic record, but its near 3-hour length, a Thursday opening ($14 million) and stiff competition worked to tamp down its opening weekend performance a bit--the third Pirates film earned an estimated $115.1 million over the 3-day portion of the holiday weekend, which is less than Shrek the Third's $122.8 million from last week and Spider-Man 3's record $151.1 million earlier this month.  Still in just five days the new Pirates film has already earned $156 million domestically and $245 million overseas.

Meanwhile last week's winner Shrek the Third dropped 56.4% over the 3-day weekend, but still managed to add $53 million ($69 million for 4-day holiday).  Both Shrek the Third, which has earned $219.4 million, and Pirates, which has brought in $156 million have a chance to catch the fast-fading Spider-Man 3, which dropped another 51% (over the 3-day weekend) and has the year's best (so far) domestic cumulative of $307.6 million.

The three blockbusters sucked all the air out of the weekend box office.  William Friedkin's edgy horror film Bug may do well on DVD, but it managed only a very meager $2528 per location. The well-reviewed 28 Weeks Later only managed to add $3.3 million in ticket sales over the 4-day weekend with a lousy $1,639 per screen average. In fact the only film in the top ten (other than the big three) to register a decent per theater average was the indie film Waitress, which averaged $7843 per theater at just 510 locations and actually took 5th place on the list, which could be the highest position ever earned by a film shown in so few theaters.