LOS ANGELES -- "Pearl Harbor," anointed as a monster hit by the Hollywood hype machine before it even opened, debuted at No. 1 at the North American box office, but its three-hour running time prevented it from smashing key records, according to studio data issued on Sunday.
The Second World War epic grossed about $39.7 million during its first two days of release, on Friday and Saturday, said a spokeswoman for Walt Disney Co.'s Touchstone Pictures unit, which released the film in 3,214 theaters across the United States and Canada.
Unusually, the studio declined to release a Sunday estimate, citing wildly varying numbers. Final Sunday figures and estimates for Monday, which is the Memorial Day holiday in the United States, will be issued on Monday morning.
Because of its 183-minute running time -- one hour more than the actual Japanese attack on Dec. 7, 1941 -- theater screenings were generally limited to three per day, instead of four or five.
Rival studios predicted "Pearl Harbor" made between $58 million and $60 million for the three days, falling short of some of the gung-ho forecasts that had preceded the film's opening.
The record for a three-day opening is held by "The Lost World: Jurassic Park," which debuted with $72 million during the Memorial Day holiday weekend in 1997. Recent release "The Mummy Returns" follows on the all-time list with $68.1 million, and then "Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" (1999) with $64.8 million.
MOST EXPENSIVE MOVIE EVER
"Pearl Harbor," directed by Michael Bay ("Armageddon") and starring Ben Affleck and Kate Beckinsale, is billed as the most expensive movie ever, reportedly costing about $140 million to make. Disney also spent millions of dollars on premiere festivities in Hawaii, while media outlets churned out Pearl Harbor stories and Disney's stock price rose as Wall Street got caught up in the hubbub.
"Sometimes a massive marketing campaign can backfire because it creates heated expectations," said boxofficeguru.com analyst Gitesh Pandya (http://www.boxofficeguru.com).
He drew comparisons with "Godzilla," which started its marketing campaign about a year before it opened in 1998, and was ultimately perceived as a relative disappointment.
Pandya had forecast "Pearl Harbor" would gross in the low $90 million area for the four days. He now sees it at about $80 million, No. 2 on the list between the $90.1 million total for "Lost World" and $70.8 million for "Mission: Impossible 2" (Memorial Day 2000).
Disney officials said the forecasts had been wildly extravagant and the company had always been restrained about making bold predictions.
It was "mathematically impossible" for the film to gross $100 million over four days, as some people had been predicting, said Disney distribution president Chuck Viane.
"It's never, ever been possible to do a $100 million weekend (with a three-hour film)," Viane said.
In fact, "Pearl Harbor" will easily set a new three-day record for a plus-size film, surpassing the $30.6 million opening for "Saving Private Ryan" (168 minutes) in 1998.
The film was playing to sellout crowds, scoring highly in exit polls and pulling in a surprisingly high share of women.
"We are beyond our wildest dreams about how good this is playing," Viane said.
Elsewhere at the box office, the animated "Shrek" (DreamWorks) slipped to No. 2 with a three-day total of $42.6 million. The acclaimed film, about a green ogre's quest for love, has grossed $99.1 million after 10 days.
"The Mummy Returns" (Universal) followed with $15 million, taking its 24-day haul to $162.8 million. "A Knight's Tale" (Columbia) was fourth with $8.0 million (17-day sum $43 million). "Angel Eyes" (Warner Bros.) pulled in $5.0 million for a 10-day tally of $17.3 million.
DreamWorks SKG is privately held. Universal Pictures is a unit of Vivendi Universal . Columbia Pictures is a unit of Sony Corp. . Warner Bros. Pictures is a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc. .
