May 28 (Bloomberg) -- ``X-Men: The Last Stand'' had the fourth-largest weekend opening in box-office history with an estimated $107 million in ticket sales in the first three days of the Memorial Day holiday.

The News Corp. film had $45.5 million in ticket sales on Friday, making it the second-largest one-day gross in history, trailing only ``Star Wars: Episode III,'' according to Exhibitor Relations Co. ``Episode III'' took in $50 million when it opened May 19, 2005.

``We knew this film was going to have one of the bigger opening weekends of the year because the buzz was strong and the box-office potential was certainly there,'' said Paul Dergarabedian, Exhibitor Relations' president, in an interview. ``But for anyone to say they expected $107 million, we'd have thought they were crazy.''

Box-office statistics for the four-day Memorial Day weekend will be reported tomorrow.

``Spider-Man,'' released in May 2002, had the biggest opening weekend with $114.8 million in sales, followed by ``Star Wars: Episode III'' at $108.4 million and ``Shrek 2'' at $108 million.

Mutants at War

``X-Men'' stars Halle Berry, Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart as mutants who are up against humans who want to cure them and evil mutants who try to take over the planet. The film was produced by Avi Arad.

The opening, the biggest so far this year, also has surpassed those of the first two movies in the X-Men series. The first, ``X-Men'' had $54.5 million in sales when it opened in July 2000, and ``X2: X-Men United'' grossed $85.6 million in its opening weekend in May 2003.

The comic-book genre has performed well at the box office because of a built-in audience of both older and younger males, and ``X-Men'' might have attracted more women because of strong female characters, such as Berry's portrayal of Storm, Dergarabedian said.

``This one may have had appeal beyond just the typical male audience that enjoys sci-fi and comic-book movies,'' he said.

In only three days ``X-Men'' has set the record for the biggest opening over the Memorial Day holiday weekend, beating the $90.2 million ``The Lost World: Jurassic Park'' set over four movie-viewing days in 1997.

No other films opened in wide distribution this weekend, Dergarabedian said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Kevin Orland in Chicago at korland@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 28, 2006 13:40 EDT