Aug 11-13 $7,237,927 2,941 $2,461
Aug 18-21 $5,212,351 2,277 $2,289
Aug 25-27 $4,006,000 1,701 $2,355

The first column's obviously a weekend. The second is the weekend gross. The third is the # of theaters. The fourth is the theater average. The weekend to weekend drops are quite good taken alone. They're below 30%, which is usually spectacular for most films. The theater drops from weekend to weekend are fairly normal for a film late in its run. The per-theater average, however, is spectacular.

Basically, each theater is seeing the same number of patrons each weekend. If they keep the film, they're going to see the business come back. Usually, there's some dropoff, at a slightly lower percentage than the total dropoff, but to pretty much stay level? Astounding. The film, of course, is Pirates 2.

Of course, the first Pirates film pretty much did the same thing, at the same point in its run... and it managed to earn more per weekend while doing so. Still, the steam hasn't run out of PotC 2 just yet. It's sitting at #6 all time (having passed Spider-Man this weekend), and while it won't get to #5 (currently Star Wars Episode I), it could get to $420 or so.

In 32 days in release, Pirates 2 has grossed $381,273,783. Comparable films at 32 days:

Revenge of the Sith - $348,140,685
Spider-Man 2 - $341,772,127
Shrek 2 - $374,235,745
Spider-Man - $355,330,685

At this point, it's already grossed more than the final tallies of both RotS ($380,270,577) and Spidey 2 ($373,585,825)

However, because opening days differ between the films (Wednesday for Spidey 2 and Shrek 2, Thursday for RotS, and Friday for Spidey) it's not an exact comparison. So for a bit more accuracy, we can look at the comparable day of the week in release. In this case, we can look at the Monday of Week 5 in release.

Movie - Day (Accumulation - %Total)
Pirates 2 - $1,574,139 ($381,273,783 - 100)
Shrek 2 - $1,886,647 ($380,509,910 - 86)
Spidey - $1,507,141 ($355,330,685 - 88)
RotS - $1,129,468 ($349,270,153 - 92)
Spidey 2 - $1,242,721 ($345,683,315 - 93)

And, purely for comparison purposes:
Pirates - $1,834,934 ($234,585,563 - 77)

It's worth noting that for daily numbers, Pirates 2 has grossed less than Pirates since Thursday, Week 4.

The records that it currently holds (all numbers rounded to the nearest $1m)

Opening Day/Single Day/Single Friday - $55
Single Sunday - $35
Opening Weekend - $135
(It just missed the single Saturday by less than $1 million)
Single Tuesday - $16

2 day gross, 3 day gross, 6 day gross, and daily gross tallies for every day since. (The 4 and 5 day grosses go to RotS, because it had the benefit of a $50 million Thursday before a $108 opening weekend).

It tied the fastest to $200 million at 8 days, but because it also had the highest gross in 8 days ($214m) it gets the mark for that record. It had the fastest to $300 million in 16 days, however, due to different release days, it hit the mark on its third Saturday, the same as RotS (17 days - $300,336,979) and Shrek 2 (18 days - $302,608,864).

Currently, the fastest to $400 million is Shrek 2, at 43 days. To do that, Pirates would need to hit the mark by next Friday, so it's not likely to happen. Considering that even after the OW, $400 million wasn't assured, that's not really at all disappointing.

Where it goes from here is a bit up in the air, but it seems to be tracking closer to Spidey 2 and RotS than Shrek 2 or Spidey on a weekend basis. It's grossing more than the first two, but not significantly so. Shrek 2 and Spidey both hit a strong stride at this point. Pirates 2 would need to post a weekend drop for Weekend 6 at under 30%, and while it's had strong legs thus far, it's not seen a drop below 40%. It - could - recover a bit and have a 35% drop, but even that would cause it to lag behind.

It should fall behind Shrek 2 on the day of the week in release sometime this week, I'd say Friday at the latest. For actual day in release, it's got a bit more breathing room, but that should fall next week, likely Tuesday.

If we split the difference between the accumulated percentages at this point between RotS and Spidey, we could assume that Pirates 2 has grossed about 90% of its final tally at this point. If so, it should finish up with about $423 million. I feel that's slightly high, and it should be somewhere in the $415-420 range.

It's better than the first. Pirates of the Caribbean is the Star Wars of this generation. Dead Man's Chest stands up very well as the Empire Strikes Back of the trilogy.

I like what they did with James.

Eh. ( Onto the records. )