The long Memorial Day weekend kicked off with solid debuts from three new releases, but none could dislodge the box office behemoths Star Wars Episode II and Spider-Man from the top spots at the box office. Episode II led the field with $12.8M on Friday, its ninth day of release, dropping 48% from the previous Friday. Since Monday, Attack of the Clones has consistently seen its daily grosses fall short of those generated by 1999's Star Wars Episode I despite the fact that the new installment has benefited from more screens and higher ticket prices. Episode II, however, is facing a more competitive landscape with the webslinger and a trio of holiday freshmen to deal with.

Phantom Menace began its sophomore frame, also Memorial Day weekend, with a $13.5M Friday gross which represented 20% of its $66.9M four-day haul. With a similar performance, Clones might find itself with $60-65M over the Friday-to-Monday span.

Sony boosted the theater count of Spider-Man to a record 3,876 locations and grossed $7.3M on Friday, falling a moderate 37% from the previous Friday. The super hero tale smashed through the $300M mark and continues to show muscles even with all the new releases entering the field. Spider-Man should collect roughly $33-37M over the four-day holiday period.

Leading the crop of new titles, Insomnia starring Al Pacino and Robin Williams debuted with $6M on Friday, its first day of release. The Warner Bros. title looks on track to gross $22-25M over the long holiday weekend. The DreamWorks animated adventure Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron and Sony's domestic thriller Enough each collected $4.5M during their Friday openings. With strong family business over the holiday, Spirit should ride higher with about $21-24M over the four-day weekend while Enough aims for a $15-19M holiday take.

Last Updated: May 25, 2002 at 3:15PM EST

Written by Gitesh Pandya