Pirates smashes opening weekend numbers!

[CarnotaurDad]

http://today.reuters.com/stocks/Quo...269613_RTRIDST_0_LEISURE-BOXOFFICE.XML&rpc=66

""Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" set a new record for the highest opening in box office history on Sunday, smashing the four-year-old record held by "Spider-Man," said distributor Walt Disney Co. (DIS.N: Quote, Profile, Research).

The widely hyped family adventure sequel, marking the return of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, sold an estimated $132 million worth of tickets in its first three days of release across North America, easily surpassing industry expectations of an opening in the $100 million range.

The old three-day mark of $115 million was set by "Spider-Man" in May 2002.

Additionally, the "Pirates" haul of $55.5 million during its first day of release on Friday set a new record for a single day, beating the $50 million earned on a Thursday in May 2005 by "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith." "

 

[MJMcBride]

How do they know about Sunday already? It hasn't happened yet. I can they estimate what they believe will be purchased. But I thought that was more of a Sunday night thing.

 

[Palendat]

Since this is such a big news story, (in Hollywood circles at least) they probably rushed the numbers a little bit. Actual numbers may be off a bit, but Boxofficemojo.com has a pretty good track record in predicting these things (or at least in reporting these things, I'm not sure who actually predicts them).

 

[CarnotaurDad]

There is a decent history of taking Friday and Saturday numbers and being able to statistically predict Sunday numbers. They have decades of data to let them make a good estimate +/- 5% or so.

 

[YoHo]

They didn't do so good with Cars did they?

Hollywood's been realing from poor boxoffice performance for the past couple years. There ability to predict anything should be called into question.

On the flipside, The financial guys have proven that they can barely spell movie much less understand how they make money.

 

[kimkarli]

WOW, that is awesome!!!!

 

[ptrbryant]

We saw it Friday night (loved it!) and thought we'd see it again tonight. The next FIVE shows were all sold-out, so we'll catch a later show. Funny thing was, there was a mom in line ahead of me and when she was told the show she wanted was sold out, she asked the kids,"You know, why don't we see 'Superman' instead? That's starting in 15 minutes!" All the kids said,"No! I don't want to see 'Superman'! I want to see 'Pirates of the Caribbean'!"

As a Disney shareholder, I'm completely thrilled with the performance of POTC2, but it seemed kind of sad to hear kids being very dismissive of Superman.

Karla B.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

The projections were actually spot on with Cars for its Opening Weekend. On Sunday, they estimated $62.8 and the final box office was $60.1. That's within the 5% window granted for the projection (they were over by $2.7 million).

So, from the projections, final numbers for Pirates should be somewhere between $125.4 and $138.6.

That said, has anyone else noticed that Cars has been performing quite well at the BO lately and has some of the best legs so far this summer? It just passed $200 million and is still going strong, which many thought would be doubtful. Not too shabby for Disney so far this summer.

 

[CarnotaurDad]

As an update, final number is 135.634. Right on target within the +/- 5%.

 

[ryley26]

Great opening now lets see if it has legs. Loved the movie still thought the first was better.

 

[KMovies]

The only disappointment with Cars is that people expected yet another record. You can't keep making movies that make more than the last one. Look at Disney, they made Mermaid which set a record, then Beauty beat it, then Aladdin beat it, then Lion King Beat it. Poor Pocahontas did Beauty business, yet was a disappointment because it couldn't beat the Lion King.

Cars is at 205 million and keeps adding to it's total. It made good money, just was expected to do better than it did.