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[Image]By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY

Another weekend, another instant blockbuster.

As expected, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End crossed the $100 million mark in its debut.

The question now is whether it can avoid the curse of the "threequel."

Pirates took in $156.1 million over the Memorial Day weekend, a record for the holiday, according to estimates from Nielsen EDI. But can it maintain momentum next week? Its big-budget predecessors this month, Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third, opened huge but saw precipitous drop-offs in ticket sales, losing more than half their business the following weekend.

"Certainly, it's big to have three movies open to more than $100 million," says Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com. "But these don't have the word of mouth that the previous movies did. A lot of fans believe the 'threequels' are the worst of the franchise."

Pirates fell short of Spider-Man 3's record opening —Spider-Man took in $151 million in its first three days, and Pirates earned $115.1 million — but Pirates still set the Memorial Day weekend record by eclipsing last year's X-Men: The Last Stand, which opened to $122.9 million. Worldwide, Pirates has taken in $401 million.

"We have a chance at having a respectable hold" next week, says Mark Zoradi, chief of distribution and marketing for Disney, which released Pirates of the Caribbean. "Obviously, there's a significant amount of franchise films out there. But audience response has been great."
Shrek the Third, which opened to $121 million last weekend, took second place with $69.1 million over four days. Spider-Man was third with $18 million and has taken in $307.6 million. The horror film Bug was fourth with $4.2 million.

Not all films are struggling with the long haul. The Keri Russell comedy Waitress cracked the top five in its fourth week of release. The movie did $4 million in only 510 theaters over the weekend for a healthy $7,800 per-theater average. The Sundance Film Festival darling has earned $6.5 million since its release a month ago.

"With all of the big action movies, I think people want films with a little meat on them," says Sheila Deloach of Fox Searchlight, which distributed Waitress.