Indiana Jones seen raiding the lost box office

By Sue Zeidler

LOS ANGELES, May 22 (Reuters) - To say Steven Spielberg's fourth "Indiana Jones" installment is highly anticipated doesn't come close to describing the buzz surrounding a film that many in Hollywood hope will revive a sluggish box office.

Days after its world premiere at the Cannes film festival in France, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" opened commercially on Thursday amid expectations that it could top $180 million in North American ticket sales through Memorial Day.

If its Friday-through-Monday tally crosses the $140 million mark, the film would surpass last year's "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" as the biggest domestic opening yet for a Memorial Day weekend. The movie is being released by Viacom Inc-owned (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) Paramount Pictures.

Sony Corp's (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) "Spider-Man 3" still holds the record for a traditional weekend opening with $151.1 million collected in its first Friday-through-Sunday frame in May of last year.

The latest "Indiana Jones" film, with Harrison Ford back as the bullwhip-cracking archeologist who hates snakes, arrived in 4,260 theaters in the United States and Canada just as the box office glow from "Iron Man," the summer's only breakout hit so far, is starting to fade.

It arrived on the heels of two big-event films -- "Speed Racer" and "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" -- that fell short of expectations during the past two weekends.

"We really need 'Indy' to reinvigorate the marketplace and get the box office back on track. It's one of the most anticipated movies for the year," said box office analyst Paul Dergarabedian, president of Media By Numbers.

Three weeks into the official summer movie season, a period that can account for as much as 40 percent of total annual ticket sales, domestic movie receipts were down 3.7 percent for the year and attendance was off 6.4 percent.