weekend box office: all ‘Pirates’ these days, and more to come
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest continues its rampage through box-office records, earning $35 million in its third weekend, far more than most movies make in their first. And it’s hauled in an astonishing $300 million in only 16 days (a new record), one of those mind-boggling numbers that almost demands to be broken down thusly: that an average of $18.75 million a day, $781,250 an hour, $13,021 per minute. ($217 per second -- damn!)
I adore the movie (unlike A.O. Scott in The New York Times, who seems to feel a rather tortured defense of spoilsport thumbs-downing “film critics” is necessary even though the movie has a Rotten Tomatoes freshness rating of 54 percent, indicating that more than half the critics polled liked the movie enough to recommend it). But I’m still mystified -- if delighted -- at the film’s amazing success. Could it simply be a matter of Pure Disney Escapism + Air-Conditioned Movie Theaters During the Height of a Nationwide Heat Wave + Johnny Depp Is a Hoot? Or maybe it’s simply wrong to reduce that confluence of factors to a lucky break on the part of the filmmakers: perhaps this really is the ultimate summertime movie, a perfect storm of marketing and movie magic.
The poster for Pirates 3...
or maybe not...
Can it all work again next year? Geeky fans, at least, are slavering -- me included. ComingSoon.net reports that the lucky duckies at this week’s ComicCon in San Diego got a look at some early footage from the film -- don’t click through if you don’t want to read even any minor spoilers. ComingSoon.net shows off the poster Disney let out for the con... though IGN Film Force suggested a coupla weeks ago that this was probably just a promo cobbled together for early PR (like, presumably, ComicCon). Both sources agree, though, that the film’s subtitle will not be At World’s End. Through my own impeccable sources, I can reveal other subtitles the flick will not bear. Among them:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Electric Boogaloo
Pirates of the Caribbean: Rise of the Machines
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Search for Spock
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Last Crusade
Pirates of the Caribbean: Return of the King
Pirates of the Caribbean: Against the World Crime League
Pirates of the Caribbean: With a Vengeance
[box office results via Box Office Mojo]
(Technorati tags: Pirates of the Caribbean, box office)
comments
posted by bats (Mon Jul 24 06, 10:26PM)
As your reviews are often included in the Rotten Tomatoes critics' reviews, I've been wondering for some time now: who ultimately determines whether a film is Fresh or Rotten, the reviewer or the Tomato Masters? I thought that your full review of "Lady in the Water," for example, was dubious at best, yet it garnered a cherry-red tomato next to your entry. I don't know that your review was that positive. (Maybe, like your stoplight icons, RT needs a middling icon...maybe a slightly-squished tomato.)
posted by MaryAnn Johanson (Mon Jul 24 06, 10:51PM)
I post my own links and make my own determination as to whether a film is Fresh or Rotten. It's a tough call, sometimes, but generally I give the films that are in the upper half of the yellow-light section in my yearly ranking a Fresh.
posted by David C (Tue Jul 25 06, 7:21AM)
As I've said before, there's clearly one single factor that, when added to an adventure movie, makes it a sure-fire box office smash.
I'm speaking, of course, of an evil monkey. Evil Monkeys = Summer Box Office!
And the third movie should do even better (SPOILER WARNING!)
"Jack the undead monkey in Chinese Warrior armor" - an evil *armored* monkey? You heard it here first - the highest box office gross of all time, adjusted for inflation or not!
posted by Tonio Kruger (Tue Jul 25 06, 2:14PM)
No "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Phantom Menace"? :-)
posted by MaryAnn (Tue Jul 25 06, 4:18PM)
You know, that damn stupid title -- "The Phantom Menace" -- is so nebulous it could apply to 75 percent of all movies ever made, including *Curse of the Black Pearl* and *Dead Man's Chest.*
Stupid Lucas...
posted by Amy Jo (Wed Jul 26 06, 2:00PM)
Electric Boogaloo!! Is it wrong to admit that I had that movie on VHS and thought Turbo was cute?
Now if we could get Cap'n Jack to break dance, that would be something to see.
posted by Bzero (Mon Jul 31 06, 6:07PM)
No, no -- following the pattern, it'd have to be Pirates of the Caribbean: Revenge of the Sith. B^)