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.
"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.". 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.
AP
It is amazing how many records this movie broke!
