UPDATE 1-’Indiana Jones’ cracks whip at box office opening

(Recasting; more analysis; background)

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES, May 23 (Reuters) – Actor Harrison Ford cracked the box-office whip as his latest “Indiana Jones” movie grossed a hefty $25 million from its first day in North American theaters, independent industry analysts reported on Friday.

That tally ranks as the fourth highest-grossing Thursday debut on record and bodes well for a movie industry looking to “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” to help shake the movie business out an early summer slump.

But analysts were divided over whether the highly anticipated adventure flick from Viacom Inc’s (VIAb.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Paramount Pictures is on track to overtake last year’s “Pirates of the Caribbean” film as the biggest opening on a U.S. Memorial Day holiday weekend.