Pirates of the Caribbean SMASHES Box Office Records

 

Jack Sparrow is coming for pirate’s parrot-made wigs!

Seems like the public only cares about Johnny Depp, as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides’ seems to be breaking records worldwide. The movie is the fourth installment in the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ series.

The film opened up in the US with $35 million on Friday, beating ‘Fast Five’ $34.4 million to have the biggest opening of 2011. The film was estimated to open up with the years biggest opening of $88 million over the weekend, marking a decline in the film’s trend in the US, as ‘Dead Mans Chest’ opened up with $55 million on its first day and ‘At Worlds End’ took in $42.9 million the first day. However, the filmed opened up overseas with $92.1 million earned in three days. Now reports are saying that the film has grossed $104.4 million up until Tuesday in the U.S., beating industry expectations 

Thanks to the release on Wednesday, ‘On Stranger Tides’ managed to gain the biggest opening of 2011 and Disney’s fourth-biggest opening ever in the UK. The $11 million gross is more than the rest of the UK’s box office’s top ten combined! It also broke records in Russia and China, grossing $25 million (an industry record and outpacing ‘At Worlds End’ entire run) and $20 million respectively (outpacing the entire run of the previous ‘Pirates’ installment).

Wig-snatching mates!

It also manages to break the record of ‘Harry Potter and The Half Blood Prince’ in 2009 by pulling in a massive, record-breaking $256.3 to $260.4 million overseas for the biggest weekend opening for a film. ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ ($236 million), ‘Spider-Man 3’ ($230.5 million) and the previous Pirates film, ‘At World’s End’ ($216 million) grossed lower over the weekend compared to ‘On Stranger Tides’. 

It pulled in $346.4 to $350.6 million worldwide, becoming the fourth-highest international bow of all time at the worldwide box office. It was beaten by openings from ‘Half-Blood Prince’, which opened up with $393 million, Spider-Man 3 with $381 million and ‘At World’s End’ with $357 million. However, new reports state that up until Tuesday the film had grossed $310.8 million overseas, brining it's total revenue to $415.2 million in less than a week!

‘On Stranger Tides’ also broke Imax theater records, becoming the top global opening of all time for the large-format exhibitor. It grossed $16.7 million. In the U.S., the movie played in a record 256 Imax theaters. “For Disney and the Pirates franchise, this is a huge global phenomenon, and we're thrilled that Imax produced a worldwide record, as well,” said Greg Foster, who is the chairman and president of film entertainment at Imax. “This shows that moviegoers around the world continue to embrace Imax as the place to see their blockbusters.  We're particularly excited about the powerful $61k per screen average internationally.”

Disney president of worldwide distribution Chick Viane also had a few positive words to say about the movie. “I think Rob Marshall obviously made one hell of a movie, and when you team Jerry Bruckheimer and Johnny Depp, it’s dynamite,” he says. “And for me, I will never look $90 million in the face and say it’s not a successful opening. Tracking had always aimed at this number, but everybody tried to make it more than the realty of tracking was. And there’s no doubt but that the international box office is becoming more and more important.” At least he realised that. Now record labels and artists should realise that America is not the only market in the music world.

Scores for the film have been sinking to low levels as film critics have been less-than-enthusiastic about the film as it has a rating of 45% based on 36 critics on Metacritic, the worst out of all the franchise’s films.. Over at Rotten Tomatoes the reviews faired worse, with a rating of 33%. Users, however, were more positive with a rating of 6.8 out of 10 at both websites.

It seems like the critics are the only fools trying to sink your ship Jack Sparrow. Too bad you and Disney are leaving with all that pile of gold…

Source: [Digital Spy] [Entertainment Weekly] [Hollywood Reporter] [Box Office Mojo]