Moviegoers were abducted by aliens on Wednesday spending $21.3M on the Steven Spielberg film War of the Worlds in its first day of release in North America. That represented the second best Wednesday opening before Independence Day weekend trailing the staggering $40.4M that Spider-Man 2 generated a year ago but beating the $18.6M of the extra terrestrial flick Men in Black II from 2002.

Adjust for three years of ticket price increases and the H.G. Wells story's opening day generated roughly the same amount of admissions as the Will Smith-Tommy Lee Jones pic. War did not have Tuesday night midnight shows making the figure impressive.

Playing ultrawide in 3,908 theaters, the Paramount/DreamWorks co-production enjoyed the sixth widest bow ever and the second widest among live action films after the webslinger sequel. War's opening day average surged to $5,439 and repped Paramount's biggest opening day gross ever. Internationally, War of the Worlds grossed an additional $13.4M, according to studio estimates, to boost the worldwide opening day tally to $34.6M.

Spider-Man 2 captured 22% of its six-day $180.1M debut in its opening day while MIB2 saw 21% of its five-day $87.2M launch on its first day. Backed by strong reviews, and not subject to as much of an upfront push like a sequel, the Tom Cruise vehicle should continue to reach out to more ticket buyers throughout the Fourth of July holiday weekend and exceed $100M over six days.

For a review of War of the Worlds, visit The Chief Report.

Last Updated: June 30, 2005 at 3:45PM EST

Written by Gitesh Pandya