'Pirates' pillage the box office

I was expecting a big first weekend for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (the second in the ‘Pirates’ trilogy), but I don’t think anyone—myself included—predicted an opening three day haul of over 132 million dollars. Opening midnight Friday morning (on 2,100 screens) and later that day widening to the fourth-most screens of all time, the three pop-culture-icons-turned-Pirates (Depp, Bloom, and the still-Miss Knightley) carved out the largest opening day ever, as the box office took in 55.5 million dollars. That shattered the previous record-holder Star Wars Episode 3: The Revenge of the Sith by 5 million, as well as the second and third-place films by 10 and 15 million respectively. Because of the insanely high demand for ticket prices, theatre complexes were forced to turn away moviegoers because showings had already maxed out seats and standing room. By Saturday afternoon, Disney was already petitioning for more screens, and this week should show an increase on the 8,500 (in 4,133 theatres) already being taken up by the film.

But even as the 225 million dollar epic sailed on through Saturday and Sunday it continued to break records, including the fastest to 100 million dollars (2 days) and one of the most-coveted of goals: the most lucrative first weekend in United States box office history. At $132,028,000, it brought in just under $32,000 per location and shattered the previous opening-weekend record of $114 million which had been held by Spider-Man (which made nearly as much money per screen as Pirates 2, by the way).

I’m sure some critics are scratching their heads and thinking ‘how the heck did such a haphazard flick get such a ridiculous load of money their first weekend?’ Sure the film was a special-effects masterpiece (putting Superman Returns to shame in this critic’s opinion), and yes, the marketing was estimated at over 200 million dollars…but if box office history has taught us anything, it’s that lots of money and special effects do not a box office hit make!

So what was it about Pirates of the Caribbean 2? A lot of the film’s success can be found by taking a look at the intense marketing tactics. Posters depicted the movie’s three stars: Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. Large promotional cardboard stands in movie theaters nation-wide went even further, banking on the image of the individual stars by showing only one of their personalities above the listed credits. Even the soundtrack featured just the three of them. In most there was no hint at the story, no creepy creatures, no jaw dropping splash of color; and not even a snapshot of the film, itself.

This simplistic approach was brilliant because it promoted the film’s best selling points—the three pop culture phenoms reprising their now-famous roles as Captain Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and Elizabeth Swann. If one were to count how many magazine covers any one of these three faces have graced since the first Pirate flick, they would run out of fingers faster than I could say ‘oh bugger’ (Jack’s favorite line from the new movie). Statistics and simple observation have proven that two of the most popular male actors the last couple of years have been Johnny Depp and Orlando Bloom. And what about Knightley? She’s not as prolific…yet, but take a look at her film career, and then take a gander at any magazine rack…anywhere and I’ll bet you she’s on the cover of at least two magazines there.

Beyond that, you have the hype of the last movie to take into account. Though it made a pretty small entry into the world (by Pirates 2 standards) with a mere $45 million first weekend, it went on to take in over 300 million dollars domestically, and another 200 million-plus dollars internationally. It became a world-wide hit; a craze, and pretty soon one of the most popular film characters of all time became Jac—er…Captain Jack Sparrow.

Leaning heavily on the success of the first film, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer went all-out with Dead Man’s Chest, adding twenty minutes more than the original and spending 85 million dollars more to create it. The movie is darker, and the story is not as fluid. In fact, many reviewers are giving it poor reviews (nearly 50% of the 150+ logged at rottentomatoes.com), with the general concensus being that the movie has as much action and swashbuckling as the first, but less of a compelling plot. This is also my view, and a grave disappointment. Much of the movie feels more comic-book than film-reel. I understand suspending realism to a degree when watching a flick like this, but—come on! Depp’s character falls hundreds of feet down a chasm, smashing through multiple wood bridges before hitting the ground below and…isn’t hurt? Not even at all? Give me a break!

The obvious undercurrent of such inconsistencies and the annoyance of sometimes outrageous plot-turns never overpower the excellent performance of the actors and AMAZING special effects, however.

Apparently the other 95 percent of the United States agreed, because they contributed to the movie’s first weekend box office gross and are likely to be back again this week. After all, they’ll probably want to see if they missed something in the sequel the first time around that might fill the many gaps in their heads. Unfortunately, there are gaps there, and we can only expect that the third film (due Spring of 2007) will fill in those gaps for us.

As for the rest of the weekend box office, it was underwhelming. In fact, the rest of the top 12 made just over 50% of the returns that “Dead Man’s Chest” raked in. Superman Returns dropped nearly 60% from last week (more than the usual 50% decrease) down to 21.8 million, while the surprising Devil Wears Prada cleared 15 million in its second week, bringing its surprising box office total up past 60 million. “Click” held off Pixar’s resilient “Cars” by 1.7 million dollars with a $12 million take. Still, the little red car held a place in the top 5 for the 5th straight week and has cleared the 200 million dollar mark. Ice Age 2 is now well inside Lighting McQueen’s rearview mirror with $193 million. The rest of the record-breaking (200+ million dollars is the most by a combined top 12) weekend box office reads like this:

6. "Nacho Libre," $3.3 million.

7. "The Lake House," $2.8 million.

8. "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift," $2.5 million.

9. "Waist Deep," $1.9 million.

10. "The Break-Up," $1.6 million.

Sam Van Eerden