The mutants broke the code.

X-Men: The Last Stand stormed through the Memorial Holiday weekend with a four-day estimate of $120.1 million at the box office in North America and X-ing out The Da Vinci Code from the top spot.

The third Marvel Comics mutant vs. mutant action clash scored as the biggest-ever opener over a Memorial Day weekend, easily surpassing the $90.1 million four-day total gobbled up by the dinosaurs of The Lost World: Jurassic Park way back in 1997.

It was also the highest weekend opener this year, and its Friday haul of $45.5 million was the second biggest single day gross ever, only beaten by Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith's $50 million earned on Thursday, May 19, last year.

"Amazing news," exclaimed Fox's distribution chief Bruce Snyder, noting the studio's PG-13 release had hit "the rarified air" of Spider-Man, which still holds the record for the best-ever opening weekend, having snagged a three-day total of $114.8 million in May '03. Comparatively, the Friday through Sunday take for X-Men: The Last Stand was $103.1 million, the fourth best ever, as it was also just below the $108.4 million for Star Wars: Episode III and the $108 million for Shrek 2 .

Playing at 3,690 sites, X-Men: The Last Stand averaged a stunning $32,554 per screen. Exit polls revealed an average A- response to the Brett Ratner-helmed movie, which brings back Dr. Jean Grey (Famke Janssen) in the guise of Dark Phoenix and adds the characters of Dr. Henry McCoy (a blue fuzz-covered Kelsey Grammer), Warren Worthington III (an angel-winged Ben Foster) and a new, potentially mutant-eliminating story twist to the established conflict between the Xavier (Patrick Stewart) troupe--Storm (Halle Berry), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) Cyclops (James Marsden) and Rogue (Anna Paquin)--and the Magento (Ian McKellen) mob--Mystique (Rebecca Romijn) and Pyro (Aaron Stanford.)

"Wow. This is great, terrific," exclaimed Paul Dergarabedian, president of Exhibitor Relations, the company that tallies the studios' grosses. He noted that this latest X-Men exceeded expectations and easily surpassed the three-day opening grosses of the two previous movies in the franchise. It did nearly double the gross of X-Men, which debuted with $54.4 million in 2000 (eventually reaching a domestic gross of $157.2 million) and well exceeded X2: X-Men United, which opened with $85.5 million in 2003 (eventually grossing $214.9 million domestically).

Dergarabedian credited the result to the appeal of the ensemble, the excellent marketing campaign, the outreach gained from the DVDs of the previous films and the public's "pent up" fever for a "big sci-fi typical summer blockbuster."

Snyder said that following the opening day rush from hard-core X-Men fans the film had a wonderful response for "kids, parents, teens--you name it: everybody!"

Dergarabedian noted that the broad appeal of the X-Men probably crossed over to pull aside the adult audiences for The Da Vinci Code. But he said that though the controversial religious thriller dropped 56 percent compared to its huge three-day opening weekend, its hold could still be considered "solid." Adding 19 screens to play at 3,754, Sony's PG-13 adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel about a mystery that challenges the core of Catholic belief earned $34 million over three days and $43 million over the entire extended weekend to achieve a current domestic gross of $145.5 million.

Sony referred to the movie's appeal to adult audiences and its two and half hour running time when noting that result. The studio played up its continued success worldwide where it has now earned a whopping $465 million, as business in both Europe and Japan dropped off considerably less than in the U.S. The anticipation is that it will have earned $500 million internationally by next weekend.

The family friendly 'toon Over The Hedge dropped only 30 percent as it moved down to third from its second place opening last weekend. Adding 34 sites to play at an extensive 4,093 locations, the PG-rated DreamWorks tale of a territorial battle between furry wild critters and suburban humans earned $26.8 million over three days and $34.3 million over four. It has now grossed $84.3 million.

After that the drop-off was sharp.

Although Paramount's Mission: Impossible III was only down 41 percent from the previous week, its fourth week haul was just $6.6 million for three days and $8.5 million for four. The Tom Cruise spy sequel's current gross is $115.8 million.

Warner Bros.' in the tank Poseidon actually dropped a fraction less in its third week than M:I -III. It was only down 40 percent--but just $5.5 million for three days and $7 million over four isn't enough to buoy the expensive disaster remake. So far, it has only grossed a dank $46.6 million.

However there was nothing inconvenient to be related about An Inconvenient Truth. Al Gore's endangered environment documentary, well received at the Cannes Film Festival, opened with a spectacular flourish at four locations, where the PG-rated Paramount documentary averaged a huge $91,447 per sites for $282,340 over three days and $365,787 over four.

Overall, the top twelve movies grossed $187.6 million over three days--a gain of 5.2 percent over last year--and $228.5 million over the entire Memorial Day holiday--a gain of 1.3 percent over last year. That added up to the second highest Memorial weekend ever, topped only by the $238.6 million four day total in 2004, when Shrek 2 was continuing to be very, very green at the box-office.

Final figures are due Tuesday. The estimates for the (three) and four day top ten follow:

1. X-Men: The Last Stand, ($103.1 million) $120.1 million
2. The Da Vinci Code, ($34 million) $43 million
3. Over The Hedge, ($26.8 million) $35.3 million
4. Mission: Impossible III, ($6.6 million) $8.5 million
5. Poseidon, ($5.5 million) $7 million
6. RV, ($4.1 million) $5.3 million
7. See No Evil, ($2.6 million) $3.2 million
8. Just My Luck, ($1.8 million) $2.3 million
9. United 93, ($808,000) $1.1 million
10. An American Haunting, ($725,560) $936,680