PIRATES' opening doesn't surprise me, it's very solid but it's not like SPIDER-MAN where the fan base "has to be there opening night." I think POTC3 will play all summer, though the movie doesn't stand up IMO to a lot of repeat business. We'll see how it shakes out -- also remember 3 hours doesn't squeeze in as many show times too.

On the other hand these crazed "weekend gross" people ought to be more impressed by how a movie does in the long term as opposed to whether or not it breaks a record weekend. SPIDEY 3 is already guaranteed to be the lowest grossing of all 3 films (domestically), despite the huge open.

FRIDAY PROJECTIONS

1. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLDS END (TEMP ESTIMATE) BVI 4,362 55,759,000 12,783 n/a 55,759,000 (Includes Thrs. night shows)
2. SHREK THE THIRD DREAMWORKS 4,122 14,360,000 3,484 n/a 164,698,631
3. SPIDER-MAN 3 SONY 4,324 3,837,000 887 n/a 293,478,576
4. BUG LIONS GATE 812 1,105,000 1,361 n/a 1,105,000
5. WAITRESS FOX SEARCHLIGHT 116 768,000 6,621 n/a 3,277,318
6. 28 WEEKS LATER FOX ATOMIC 2,305 696,000 302 n/a 21,792,973
7. DISTURBIA PARAMOUNT 2,547 533,000 209 n/a 73,094,808
8. GEORGIA RULE UNIVERSAL 2,531 475,000 188 n/a 14,890,125
9. FRACTURE NEW LINE 1,607 297,000 185 n/a 35,854,000
10. AWAY FROM HER MGM 174 197,000 1,132 n/a 1,818,341

From deadline Hollywood:

SATURDAY AM: There's huge controversy and confusion on the high seas of the Hollywood studios over exactly how much booty the No. 1 movie in the country Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's End looted at the box office Friday. I'm told to rely on this figure: a bountiful $43 million from 4,362 theaters. But Disney's number is $44.4M. That's a whole lotta domestic gross receipts, and the biggest Friday which Disney has ever had in its movie history. This will also be the studio's biggest film weekend. But it wasn't a single-day record: that still belongs to Spider-Man 3 which scored $59,841,919 on the Friday of its opening weekend, May 4th-May 6th. Some numbers, however, showed P3 with $57+ mil in its domestic treasure chest already, but that's its cume to date: consisting of $14M from Thursday night showings (though Disney tallied $17M), plus $43M from Friday's screenings (including midnight screenings of $3M). My box office gurus say P3 is projected to make between $140M-$145M for Friday-Saturday-Sunday.

This is turning out to be not much of a horse race: Johnny won't beat Spidey for the biggest 3-day opening weekend in film history at $151M. P3 will comes up short because of its too-long official running time of 2 hours and 48 minutes. Of course, Sony hit SM3's debut day hard with virtually round-the-clock screenings of its Webbed Wonder threequel. Whereas Disney decided on a softer opening. The prediction of box office gurus that Jack Sparrow and his crew can set a $200M record for biggest holiday weekend opening (Friday-Saturday-Sunday-Monday) has been revised downward as well: now the experts believe P3 should make $165M-170M for the four days, still the biggest opening no matter what. (Actually, P3 is enjoying a 4 1/2-day debut!)

I'm just told Pirates 3 has boosted its worldwide gross-to-date to $142.5 million, and set a new record for Disney at the worldwide box office. Now playing in 102 international territories, P3 added $44.4 million on Friday for a new cume of $85.5 million, which also stands as the studio's record.

Friday's per screen average was a thriving $12,792 even on the big getaway day of Memorial Weekend. I'm told that seven theaters in the U.S. did over $100,000 for the day: the top 2 were in Salt Lake City (go figure) and the 3rd was Hollywood's famed El Capitan Theatre (which had a 3:15 am showing this morning that sold out.) So go, Johnny, go!

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/c ... kd-record/

Some were projecting a Saturday increase as the Disney rep said. This does not bode well for the long haul that it actually went down.

SATURDAY PROJECTIONS

1. PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLDS END BVI 4,362 37,701,000 8,643 n/a 94,701,000
2. SHREK THE THIRD DREAMWORKS 4,122 20,769,000 5,039 -55% 185,467,631
3. SPIDER-MAN 3 SONY 4,324 5,588,000 1,292 -55% 299,066,576
4. WAITRESS FOX SEARCHLIGHT 116 1,231,000 10,612 154% 4,508,318
5. BUG LIONS GATE 812 1,148,000 1,414 n/a 2,253,000
6. 28 WEEKS LATER FOX ATOMIC 2,305 885,000 384 -58% 22,677,973
7. GEORGIA RULE UNIVERSAL 2,531 704,000 278 -54% 15,594,125
8. DISTURBIA PARAMOUNT 2,547 695,000 273 -56% 73,789,808
9. FRACTURE NEW LINE 1,607 479,000 298 -55% 36,333,000
10. AWAY FROM HER MGM 174 312,000 1,793 n/a 2,130,341

How much of a factor would you say the roughly 168 minute thereabouts running time on POTC 3 is?

Eric W. wrote:How much of a factor would you say the roughly 168 minute thereabouts running time on POTC 3 is?

It can't help, but when you consider even DEAD MAN'S CHEST did $135 million over 3 days, and it was about 20 mins. shorter, it's not the reason for the cool off in numbers.

Obviously the 5th biggest weekend is nothing to sneeze at, either. But I don't think in the long run this movie is going to come close to $400 million at all, which is what the second movie did.

Pirates' Opens With $112.5 Million
Sunday May 27 2:09 PM ET

Box-office treasure is a little harder to come by on the new voyage of "Pirates of the Caribbean." The third installment in the Walt Disney Co. franchise, "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," hauled in $112.5 million from Friday to Sunday, well below last summer's $135.6 million opening weekend for its predecessor, "Dead Man's Chest."

"At World's End" had the fifth-biggest three-day opening ever, with this month's "Spider-Man 3" ($151.1 million) and "Shrek the Third" ($121.6 million) both outperforming it.

Adding in $14 million from Thursday night preview screenings, "At World's End" had taken in $126.5 million domestically, according to studio estimates Sunday. The Thursday night screenings skewed the weekend figures for "At World's End," which likely would have done much of that business on Friday without those previews.

"At World's End" took in an additional $205.5 million internationally since it began rolling out overseas Wednesday, putting its worldwide total at $332 million.

Though it missed out on key box-office records, "At World's End" is on course to surpass last year's "X-Men: The Last Stand," which had the best four-day Memorial Day weekend debut with $122.9 million.

"We will go flying by that," said Chuck Viane, Disney head of distribution.

After 2003's acclaimed "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," reviews were mixed at best for both sequels.

Critics found the second and third movies more akin to the Disney theme-park attraction on which the franchise is based, cinematic thrill rides whose huge visual set pieces supplanted much of the charm of the first film, which earned Johnny Depp an Academy Award nomination as boozy buccaneer Jack Sparrow.

Released just 10 months after "Dead Man's Chest," the new movie picks up from that cliffhanger as Sparrow's friends and foes (Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush) set sail to rescue him from Davy Jones' locker.

It remains to be seen how well "At World's End" will measure up in the long run to "Curse of the Black Pearl," which topped out at $305 million, and "Dead Man's Chest," last year's biggest hit with $423 million.

"Fifth-biggest opening of all time. There's really nothing to complain about here," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Media By Numbers. "These numbers tell us that people love to see these `Pirates' movies, regardless of reviews, regardless of any other factors."

With a big first weekend behind it, "At World's End" appears positioned to avoid the fate of some third installments such as "Jurassic Park III" and "The Matrix Revolutions," whose returns fell far short of their predecessors.

The new "Pirates" poached the box-office crown from DreamWorks Animation's "Shrek the Third," whose No. 1 debut a week earlier was a record opening for an animated film. "Shrek the Third" slipped to second place with $51 million, pushing its domestic total just beyond $200 million.

With $13.7 million, Sony's "Spider-Man 3" came in third, raising its domestic take to $303.3 million. Worldwide, "Spider-Man 3" has topped $800 million.

"At World's End" was hindered by a running time of two hours, 47 minutes, limiting the number of screenings theaters could schedule. "Dead Man's Chest" was about 15 minutes shorter and "Spider-Man 3" was nearly a half-hour shorter.

But "At World's End" made up for that by playing in more theaters, an all-time high of 4,362, 110 more than "Spider-Man 3," the previous record-holder.

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Media By Numbers LLC. Final figures will be released Tuesday.

1. "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End," $112.5 million.

2. "Shrek the Third," $51 million.

3. "Spider-Man 3," $13.7 million.

4. "Bug," $3.3 million.

5. "Waitress," $3.1 million.

6. "28 Weeks Later," $2.5 million.

7. "Georgia Rule," $1.9 million.

8. "Disturbia," $1.8 million.

9. "Wild Hogs," $1.1 million.

10. "Fracture," $1.08 million.

Total numbers for May 25-28

Solid for PIRATES, a Memorial Day record at least, while a big (43%) drop for SHREK, considering SHREK 2 dropped only 15% in its second weekend. Looks like word of mouth might be a consideration there too.

So far, I have to say, a shaky start to the summer movie season.

1 N Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End BV $142,055,000 - 4,362 - $32,566 $156,055,000 $300 1
2 1 Shrek the Third P/DW $69,085,000 -43.2% 4,172 +50 $16,559 $219,424,000 $160 2
3 2 Spider-Man 3 Sony $18,000,000 -38.0% 3,723 -601 $4,834 $307,642,000 $258 4
4 N Bug LGF $4,200,000 - 1,661 - $2,528 $4,200,000 - 1
5 12 Waitress FoxS $4,000,000 +270.0% 510 +394 $7,843 $6,517,000 - 4
6 3 28 Weeks Later FoxA $3,300,000 -39.5% 2,013 -292 $1,639 $24,421,000 - 3
7 5 Disturbia P/DW $2,404,000 -35.6% 1,632 -915 $1,473 $74,914,000 $20 7
8 4 Georgia Rule Uni. $2,380,000 -36.5% 1,904 -627 $1,250 $16,805,000 - 3
9 6 Fracture NL $1,600,000 -29.8% 907 -700 $1,764 $37,124,000 - 6
10 17 Wild Hogs BV $1,440,000 +241.0% 426 -86 $3,380 $163,263,000 - 13
11 14 Away from Her LGF $970,000 +40.2% 256 +82 $3,789 $2,591,000 - 4
12 8 The Invisible BV $788,000 -39.4% 457 -921 $1,724 $18,897,000 - 5
13 10 Blades of Glory P/DW $644,000 -41.0% 317 -495 $2,031 $116,367,000 $61 9