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Memorial Day was once one of Hollywood’s prime holiday weekends, officially launching the summer movie season with big boxoffice bucks.

The studios began paying serious attention to Memorial Day in 1982 with ROCKY III, which got the ball rolling with a then hefty $16M for four days. That led to Memorial monsters like RETURN OF THE JEDI (’83), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (’84), RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD 2 (’85), BEVERLY HILLS COP II (’87) & BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (’90).

It was terrific until it suddenly ended in 2002 with Sony/Marvel’s move to start the summer 5/3 with SPIDER-MAN. Spidey’s $114.8M domestic opening turned the first weekend in May into a new Marvel launchpad that overpowered Memorial Day.

In 2007, for instance, SPIDER-MAN 3 hit the multiplexes 5/4 and did  $151.1M for three days. Memorial Day weekend wasn’t as hot with Disney’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END debuting  5/25 to $114.7M for three days & $139.8M for four days.

END, an epic swashbuckler fantasy directed by Gore Verbinski, was produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Ted Elliott & Terry Rossio. Its cast was led by Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley & Orlando Bloom. END was episode three in a trilogy that began in ’03 with PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: THE CURSE OF THE BLACK PEARL and was followed in ’06 by PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST.

After PEARL’S success, Disney green lighted two sequels for back-to-back filming with the same cast & crew. Elliott & Rossio wrote a story arc that worked for both episodes. Verbinski wanted END to echo the character piece tone that PEARL had.

With a production budget reportedly of $300M, END was the most costly movie ever made at the time. Of course, it was money well spent because END grossed $961.7M worldwide — beating SPIDER-MAN 3’s global haul of $895.8M. END ranked then as the fifth biggest worldwide hit ever — after TITANIC, THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE RETURN OF THE KING, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MAN’S CHEST & HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE.

END’s first cut ran a lengthy three hours. Bruckheimer agreed to trim it by 20 minutes, insisting it needed to run long so as to set up its climactic  pirate ships’ battle. Its release prints ended up running 2 hours 49 minutes, including credits.

END world premiered at Disneyland, where the trilogy’s first two films had also debuted and where the hit theme park attraction that inspired the movie franchise had originated. PIRATES was the last ride Walt Disney, himself, had worked on designing and its debut in March 1967 came three months after his death.