Over at Deadline Hollywood Daily - Nikki Finke says that the latest tracking data for Pirates of the Caribbean 2 "is as big as any film in history."
That's fantastic. I'm sure the film will be great (same writers, directors, cast, and a deliriously funny Johnny Depp) and the opening will be ginormous.
However she goes onto say, "Either there's a gross error, or the Magic Kingdom has Titanic on its hands..."
Now that's just silly hyperbole. It may well open to $100 million, and it may make more than the original's massive $305.4 million. Just remember than Titanic almost doubled that number. So to be clear, the first film broke $300 million, which just 21 films have ever done, and she thinks that this sequel will double it? Even the incredibly huge Shrek 2 still fell over $160 million short of Titanic.
Titanic broke $15 million for 15 straight weeks and was number 1 on the charts during that entire run (through January, February, and March, so it had no competition).
Can you name the last film that made more than $15 million in it's 15th week out? No? That's right, because it has never happened before. The next best is a measly $6 million, and that shouldn't even count because Sideways wasn't in wide-release until that very 15th week. Show me another movie that was still playing on over 3200 screens four months after it was released.
Nothing comes close.
Look, I'm really looking forward to the movie, but the Titanic comparison is just silly.
So, um... good luck with that.
Hey Craig -
Totally agree with you. The Titanic comparisons are just plain silly. However, when the preview for POTC2 played at X-Men, the crowd went wild. They were screaming and clapping well into the next preview. Which was, unfortunately, Superman (which I think is pure genius film making -- resurrecting the score AND Marlon Brando -- awesome!). But I agree -- Pirates will have a huge huge opening -- I'm going to go with $120 mill. But will drop, like every film other than Cars. And Cars, what can I say, any film that panders to the NASCAR crowd is something I stay as far away from as possible (It's like Passion of the Cars, but with Paul Newman).
This is turning out to be a weird summer of movies, don't you think? In the most recent issue of EW (with Superman on the cover) only one film received a score above B-. That almost never happens. Xmen reviews were tepid. Da Vinci was eviscerated (which as I stated before was frankly baffling). Perhaps Anne Thompson is right -- the slow and withering death of the critic?
Anyway, hope all is well. Let's chat soon.
Posted by: PeeVee | June 18, 2006 at 01:46 PM
Yep - while the Titanic finals are silly comparisons, the opening is going to be tremendous. It's now being projected to beat Spider-Man ($114.8 million) for the biggest opening weekend of all time.
We'll see.
Of course, we all know that Aquaman already beat Spider-Man this weekend ;) (for Entourage fans only)
Posted by: Craig | June 18, 2006 at 09:39 PM
Hug it out, Craig, hug it out!
Posted by: PeeVee | June 19, 2006 at 11:15 AM