Los Angeles, CA USA (M&C) -- Today should be a big day for Disney and Buena Vista as their ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest’ (DMC) goes down in the annals of movie history raking in $1 billion in worldwide ticket sales.
DMC joins ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King ' (ROK) and ‘Titanic ’ as the only movies to reach the billion dollar plateau.
Foreign box-office has pushed DMC past the billion dollar mark – up to Tuesday (Sept 5) taking in approx $583 million. Top foreign markets have been the UK ($94 million) and Japan ($78 million). Italian multiplexes will open the pic September 15th which should bring in additional change to the cume.
DMC has been off the domestic top 10 list for the past couple of weeks, raking in $4.9 million over Labor Day contributing to a total $414 million.
In first place in the “amazing” billion dollar race is ‘Titanic’ with $1.83 billion; second place goes to ROK with $1.13 billion.
Pundits are citing the worldwide popularity of Johnnie Depp for success of DMC. But with success comes caution as ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End’, the fourth installment in the franchise opens May 25, 2007. Studio must maintain momentum for nearly a year which translates into big pr budgets.
Spicing the pot is competition for top spot next May as World’s End goes up against Sony’s ‘Spider Man 3’ which releases May 4 and Paramount’s ‘Shrek 3’ opening May 18.
Copyright 2006 by Monsters and Critics
Your Talkback on this Story