Captains Sao Feng (left) and Jack Sparrow in 'Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End'. - ContributedLOS ANGELES (AP):
Johnny Depp and his pirate friends pulled in a lot of plunder, but fell far short of a record opening day.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End raked in US$43 million domestically on Friday, well behind the US$59.3 million opening day for Spider-Man 3 just three weeks earlier, according to studio estimates on Saturday.
The numbers for At World's End were skewed somewhat because the Walt Disney Co. had preview screenings at about 3,000 theatres last Thursday night in advance of the movie's official Friday release.
The movie pulled in US$14 million at those screenings, putting its domestic total at US$57 million in just over a day. Without the Thursday screenings, much of that business would have been done on Friday instead, putting At World's End in range of the top single-day grosses.
Spider-Man 3, released by Sony Corp., had broken the single-day box-office record of US$55.8 million set last July by Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, part two in the action-comedy franchise starring Depp as boozy buccaneer Jack Sparrow.
At World's End also grossed US$44.4 million on Friday in 102 international markets. That puts its worldwide total at US$142.5 million since it began rolling out overseas last Wednesday.
The length of At World's End - two hours, 47 minutes, nearly half an hour longer than Spider-Man 3 - is a factor, limiting the number of screenings theatres can squeeze in each day.
At World's End, whose Caribbean portions were shot at the same time as Dead Man's Chest, picks up where the second movie left off, with Depp's Sparrow consigned to Davy Jones' locker and old allies and enemies (Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush) embarking on a voyage to save him.
Box Office Top 10
| 1. | Pirates of the Caribbean: | At ... US$112.5 million |
2. | Shrek the Third US$51.0 | | million |
3. | Spider-Man 3 US$13.7 |
| million |
4. | Bug US$3.3 million |
| 5. | Waitress US$3.1 million |
6. | 28 Weeks Later US$2.5 |
| million |
| 7. | Georgia Rule US$1.9 |
| million |
8. | Disturbia US$1.8 million |
| 9. | Wild Hogs US$1.1 million |
| 10. | Fracture US$1.1 million
|
