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Memorial Day was once a prime Hollywood holiday weekend that officially launched the summer movie season.

The studios began paying serious attention to Memorial Day in 1982 after ROCKY III opened to a then hefty $16M for four days. That paved the way for more Memorial monster hits — like RETURN OF THE JEDI (1983), INDIANA JONES AND THE TEMPLE OF DOOM (1984), RAMBO: FIRST BLOOD 2 (1985), BEVERLY HILLS COP II (1987) & BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III (1990).

This was how Hollywood’s summer always started — until it stopped in ’02 when Sony/Marvel decided to kick off the summer earlier on 5/3 with SPIDER-MAN. Spidey’s $114.8M domestic debut turned the first weekend in May into a Marvel summer launchpad that overpowered Memorial Day.

In ’07, for instance, SPIDER-MAN 3 hit the multiplexes 5/4 and grossed   $151.1M for three days. Memorial Day weekend ’07 wasn’t nearly as hot. Disney’s PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD’S END opened  5/25 to $114.7M for three days and $139.8M for four days.

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

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 $300M production budget, END cost more than any 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, CHEST & HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE.

END’s first cut was a lengthy three hours. Bruckheimer agreed to trim it by just 20 minutes, insisting it needed to run long to set up its climactic pirate ships battle. In the end, it ran 2 hours 49 minutes, including credits.

Disney world premiered END at Disneyland where the trilogy’s first two films had debuted and where the legendary theme park attraction that inspired the movie franchise had originated. PIRATES was the last ride whose development and construction Walt Disney supervised. Its opening to the public Mar. 18, 1967 came just three months after his death.