Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End -- Box Office Smash?

Friday, May 25, 2007 -

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End

Sounding like a parrot much recently? Yes I am, but for good reason, this year's the year of box office blow outs. And it's kind of funny since we've heard nothing but complaining from the studios about how the entire business was sinking into a depression where people just aren't going to see movies in the numbers they have in years past.

They confess total astonishment and ignorance about why we're going to the theaters less often -- "they" being studio executives -- even though two reasons are so wildly obvious that they are practically written on the side of 50-story skyscrapers today: high ticket prices and too many sequels.

As much as I'd love to rant about that for a couple of days, I'll spare you the suffering. Everybody knew Spider-Man 3 was going to tear up the box office, and it did, setting the all time record for largest opening day and weekend, even though it's probably not even going to make it into the top 10 for all time worldwide gross.

We all know that Potter 5 will challenge for the throne, and it's hardly a risky bet that Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will blow some records out of the water (ohh a pun!) in its own right. In fact, there's speculation that At World's End will mark the end of Spider-Man 3's reign for opening weekend after just three weeks of having landed it.

For their latest high-seas escapades, Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) and company board a record 4,362 theater marquees for the Memorial Day holiday frame. Of those theaters, 1,068 will be digital -- a high for that format as well.

That's more theaters and screens than SM3 got.

Last year's "Pirates" film, "Dead Man's Chest," opened to $135.6 million in early July to become the biggest opening weekend in history, breaking the record set just six weeks earlier by 20th Century Fox's "X-Men: The Last Stand," which debuted during the four-day Memorial Day holiday frame with $122.9 million. "Dead Man's Chest" held the record until this month, when Sony Pictures' "Spider-Man 3" vaulted past it with $151.1 million to claim the crown.

Who knew pirates would be so huge? These guys did, they wrote it all. After the complaints I heard about Spider-Man 3, I think it got far more money than it deserved to. I love Sam Raimi, but his $258 million dollar budget was out of control, and cost that film a significant payday. The last time I checked -- and I'm sure this has changed since last weekend -- SM3 was only looking at like a $150 million profit on worldwide gross of nearly $800 million.

At World's End is just as bad though, costing $225 million to produce meaning it'll need twice that amount just to break even. I hope it does well, I mean, I still need to see the second one, so I'm clueless coming into it. First one was great, and this one is getting pretty good reviews. Anybody who sees it this weekend should feel free to share their thoughts down in the comments.

If you've made it this far down in this post, then you'll feel this note is very apropos: People are reporting an extra scene after the credits that is part of the story, not a gag reel or anything. Stick around and check it out, after all, that $10 ticket surely bought you the righ to watch the creds, right?

Topics: Film, Feature, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, Johnny Depp

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