Opening Weekend Estimate for Pirates - 132 Million

[crazy4wdw]

Box Office Mojo is estimating that POTC - Dead Man's Chest made $132,028,000 for its opening weekend.

This would place the movie at the top of the list for opening weekend box offfice receipts, topping Spiderman's (2002) 115 million opening weekend box office.

 

[crazy4wdw]

LOS ANGELES - Johnny Depp's boozy, woozy buccaneer Jack Sparrow has plundered the box office, with "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" taking in a record $132 million in its first three days, according to studio estimates Sunday.

Disney's swashbuckling sequel sailed past the previous all-time best debut, 2002's "Spider-Man," which took in $114.8 million in its first weekend.

"Dead Man's Chest" also did nearly three times the business of its predecessor, "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl," which took in $46.6 million over opening weekend in 2003.

The sequel surpassed that total in its first day alone, taking in $55.5 million Friday to beat the previous single-day record of $50 million, set last year by "Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith." With $44.7 million on Saturday, "Dead Man's Chest" also became the first movie to top $100 million in just two days.

Despite sky-high projections for the "Pirates" sequel from industry analysts, producer Jerry Bruckheimer said he had expected "Dead Man's Chest" to open closer to the $77 million debut weekend of last spring's "The Da Vinci Code."

"When people in the industry predicted these high numbers, I thought they were just trying to be mean. So no matter how good we did, if we did $100 million, we'd be failures," Bruckheimer told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I didn't think we'd get near these numbers."

The movie sent Hollywood's overall business soaring. The top 12 films grossed $206.5 million, up 48 percent from the same weekend last year, when "Fantastic Four" opened with $56.1 million.

"Dead Man's Chest" raked in nearly double the total of the rest of the top 12 combined. The previous weekend's top film, "Superman Returns," fell to No. 2 with $21.85 million, down 58 percent from opening weekend.

"Superman Returns" has grossed $141.7 million in 12 days and should fly past the $200 million mark, said Dan Fellman, head of distribution for Warner Bros., which released the film.

The sci-fi tale of drug addiction "A Scanner Darkly" debuted strongly in limited release with $406,000 in 17 theaters. Shot in live action then painted over with digital animation, the movie stars Keanu Reeves, Winona Ryder and Robert Downey Jr. in a hallucinatory tale adapted from Philip K. Dick's novel.

In a single weekend, "Dead Man's Chest" reeled in 43 percent of the $305 million total domestic gross the original "Pirates" rang up in its entire six-month theatrical run.

The movie's audience was equally divided between males and females, and it drew strongly from all age groups, according to Disney.

"It is straight across the board," said Chuck Viane, head of distribution for Disney, which based the movies on its "Pirates of the Caribbean" theme park ride. "Everybody's coming. Whoever it is, they're there."

Even factoring in higher admission prices since 2002, "Dead Man's Chest" still set a record of just under 20 million tickets sold, about 200,000 more than "Spider-Man."

"Maybe the only movie that has a chance to beat this record might be the next `Pirates' movie," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracker Exhibitor Relations.

Audiences won't have to wait long. Disney shot much of the third installment at the same time as "Dead Man's Chest," which ends in a cliffhanger leading into part three, due in theaters over Memorial Day weekend next year.

 

[YoHo]

Superman's dropoff is being severly impacted by Pirates. It's a shame, because it's a really good movie.

 

[mommiepoppins]

yeah my dd loves mr deep

 

[crazy4wdw]

UPDATE: Disney Raids Street Sentiment With 'Pirates'

July 10, 2006: 15:04 p.m. EST

LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones) -- A record-setting weekend for Walt Disney Co.'s " Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest" prompted new optimism Monday for the entertainment giant on Wall Street, as well over the fortunes of the overall box office.

The sequel to the 2003 hit "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl" obliterated a 4-year-old record for opening-weekend results by scoring a $132 million total take from Friday to Sunday. That easily surpassed the $115 million earned by "Spider-Man" in 2002, the previous record for a non-holiday- weekend debut.

As a number of analysts raised their estimates for upcoming Disney results, the company's shares (DIS) were up as much as a percentage point in the early going -- which might not seem like a significant increase, but film releases from major entertainment conglomerates such as Disney usually don't sway stock prices at all.

The weekend box office also was enough to spur Wall Street analysts to raise their views on Disney, solely based on "Pirates" preliminary results. Some were foreseeing "Spider-Man"-like overall numbers for the film. "Spider-Man" went on to earn $404 million in the U.S. and $806.7 million worldwide.

Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto said in a note to clients that "Pirates" -- along with strong sales of the Disney soundtrack "High School Musical" -- could lead to another 3 cents of earnings-per-share upside for fiscal 2007, on top of the 9 cents of upside he projected just last week.

"We see the opening of 'Pirates 2' as just one of several catalysts we laid out in our July 7 note that would drive continue estimate revisions and drive Disney shares towards our 6-month price target of $34 per share," Noto wrote.

Laura Martin at Soleil/Media Metrics said she sees another $100 million in revenue for fiscal 2006 -- which ends in September -- and as much as 6 cents of earnings-per-share upside for Disney for 2007, much of which would come from ancillary sales in home video.

"We now estimate that 'Pirates 2' will generate about $800 million of global box office [divided equally between the U.S. and overseas markets]," Martin wrote, calling it "conservative" in light of the first "Pirates" film's $653 million in worldwide box office.

The stellar opening for the second "Pirates" movie also prompted box-office watchers to speculate on whether the film could single-handedly revive the industry's fortunes.

While 2006 results had tracked ahead of last year's dismal showings, they weren't exactly evoking visions of renewed vigor. But the "Pirates" showing fueled a near-50% increase in box office versus the comparable weekend in 2005.

"This can definitely spark new momentum at the box office," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of theater results tracker Exhibitor Relations. He pointed out that this one weekend had raised the year-to-date results by more than a percentage point.

More importantly, there were more crowds being exposed at cinemas to the marketing for upcoming films.

"We're in a much better place than we were a year ago," he said. "This is good news, no question about it."

But Brandon Gray, editor of BoxOfficeMojo.com, said much of the buzz from the weekend was confined to "Pirates." The film could see a significant drop in upcoming weekends, but the business for it overall should be good.

"It should have smooth sailing throughout the summer," Gray said.

Dow Jones Newswires 07-10-06 1504ET Copyright (c) 2006 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.