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Pirates in Uncharted Territory Already
The doubloons haven't even started pouring in yet and the pirates are already pillaging the record books.
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, the third and possibly final installment of the swashbuckling series based on the Disneyland ride, will sail into 4,362 U.S. theaters tonight at midnight, breaking the short-term record set three weeks ago by Spider-Man 3, which opened in 4,253 and topped out in 4,324.
According to movietickets.com, the film is poised to reap maximum box-office booty, as well, with advanced ticket sales outpacing the opening weekends of both Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest and Spider-Man 3.
But while Spidey swung into theaters unopposed, At World's End still has to contend with the red-suited superhero, as well as with Shrek the Third, which opened just last week to the tune of $121.6 million.
"It's definitely going to be the highest grossing Memorial Day weekend of all time," Exhibitor Relations box-office analyst Jeff Bock told E! Online. The current record was set last year by X-Men: The Last Stand which grossed $122.9 million May 26-29.
"I think this is the one that people were waiting for the most," Bock said. "Spider-Man definitely had the buildup, but I think there's something to be said for a box office that's really on fire. I think Pirates does have the edge there—but we're also talking about theaters playing it back to back to back."
Unlike Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third, however, At World's End—despite being all gussied up with a $300 million production budget, 20-minute swordfight sequences, a CGI cast of hundreds and multiple members of the undead (including a Keith Richards cameo)—also has to contend with the fact that its most immediate predecessor was widely panned. Yes, it made more than $1 billion and won Nickelodeon Kids' Choice and People's Choice Awards galore...but the critics didn't like it very much.
Good news for Captain Jack, though: The early reviews are middling, earning a 5.9 out of 10 on the review-compiling Website rottentomatoes.com—which should be more than enough to snag another billion—and most critics are agreeing that Johnny Depp, who's only in about half the movie, is the one to buy a ticket for.
Following "the bloated shenanigans of the previous entry," director Gore Verbinski "is reminding us why we should ever trust him again," the New York Times' Jeannette Catsoulis writes.
To balance out the rapid-fire action and somewhat convoluted plot (the consensus is that a repeat viewing of the first two films will help), a handful of "stunning and surreal moments" and great acting from a supporting cast that includes Bill Nighy as the cephalopod-faced Davy Jones and Stellan Skarsgard as Will's father, the barnacled Bootstrap Bill Turner, help steady the happenings on screen.
"Depp's fey, morally challenged buccaneer remains a kick and the pic's biggest asset," Variety's Brian Lowry writes, and that must come as a relief to the thousands who are going to see At World's End just for Jack's smoky-eyed swagger.
"The movie is almost too much," Michael Wilmington of the Chicago Tribune writes, but it is also "subversively off-track and delightfully imaginative."
But clocking in at a hefty two hours and 47 minutes, At World's End is also "as murky as the undersea world that Sparrow's Black Pearl is plunged into," according to USA Today's Claudia Puig.
"We care a jot about what happens to lovers Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley) and Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and it is fun to lay eyes again on Davy Jones with his face full of writhing tentacles.
"But let's be honest. It's all about Jack."
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