Coming into it's second weekend, Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had very few records left to break. One of which was the ten-day box office record which, like the Monday and Tuesday record, were crushed by the Flying Dutchman's cannons.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest Takes 10-Day Record
The Pirates phenomenon continues. Though the critics are mixed on the final result of the sequel, it seems that word of mouth, anticipation and long lines have helped create another huge weekend for Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest. With a 54% drop from its opening weekend, the Dead Man's Chest was able to still bring in a healthy $62.2 million; a number that easily gave Disney the top spot for a second week.
According to Variety, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest has scored the biggest ever 10-day gross as its total domestic ticket sales hit $258.2 million. The only record the film seemed to miss was biggest second weekend; it got third. Ahead of Pirates are Shrek 2's $72.1 million in 2004 and Spider-Man's $71.4 million in 2002.
Overall the 54% decline was average for the second weekend after a huge summer bow, bigger than the two Spider-Man pics, Revenge of the Sith or Shrek 2, but smaller than X-Men: The Last Stand, The Matrix Reloaded or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban.
As predicted, Pirates doesn't have to depend on a specific audience -- making matinees as valuable as night screenings.
What comes as quite a shock, Fox's Little Man was able to beat out Universal Pictures' You, Me and Dupree with $21.7 million vs. $21.3 million.
Now that Pirates has gotten its opening weekend out of its system Warner Bros' Superman Returns had a lesser drop of 47% this weekend to $11.6 million; which is respectable. With $163 million made so far, it looks like Bryan Singer's franchise revival will have a final domestic take close to $200 million. Though quite a bit of precious kryptonite, will that be enough to get a sequel greenlit?
One final mention goes to Warner Independent's A Scanner Darkly. Only playing on 216 theatres, the Linklater adaptation was able to gross a decent $1.2 million.
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