Rob Marshall’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides easily took the U.S. box office crown as expected, but its estimated $90.1 million take was by far the lowest of any of the Pirates sequels. Still the Johnny Depp-starring vehicle posted the biggest debut of any U.S. film so far in 2011, and overseas, where it opened on Wednesday on more than 20,000 screens, the film has earned an estimated $256.3 million, nearly three times its domestic take. Pirates’ mammoth $346 million debut is the fourth highest worldwide opening ever.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): May 20 - 22, 2011

 

Film

Weekend Gross

Screens

Avg./

Screen

Total Gross

Wk#

1

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

$90,100,000

4,155

$21,685

$90,100,000

1

2

Bridesmaids

$21,058,000

2,937

$7,170

$59,518,000

2

3

Thor

$15,500,000

3,924

$3,950

$145,406,000

3

4

Fast Five

$10,631,000

3,622

$2,935

$186,219,000

4

5

Rio

$4,650,000

2,593

$1,793

$131,647,000

6

6

Priest

$4,600,000

2,864

$1,606

$23,683,000

2

7

Jumping the Broom

$3,700,000

1,472

$2,514

$31,318,000

3

8

Something Borrowed

$3,425,000

2,606

$1,314

$31,428,000

3

9

Water for Elephants

$2,150,000

1,894

$1,135

$52,428,000

5

10

Tyler Perry's Madea's Big Happy Family

$990,000

912

$1,086

$51,757,000

5


On Stranger Tides’ opening was the 12th best May debut ever, but with 50% of its take from higher priced 3-D venues, in terms of attendance the film falls to #27. The latest Pirates film did post solid numbers across the demographic spectrum—54% of the audience was male and the same percentage was over 25. While interest in the Pirates franchise may be diminishing in the U.S., its $90.1 million domestic debut was still enough to push the total of the top ten films a full 17% over the same weekend last year, giving Hollywood a rare win in its battle with last year’s record grosses.
 
Universal’s comedy Bridesmaids dropped only 19.8% as it earned an estimated 21 million and slipped past last week’s winner Thor, which brought in an estimated $15.5 million as it fell 55% and slid to #3 after two weeks on the top of the charts. But don’t fret for the comic book-based Norse God. While the film’s domestic gross is now $145.4, its foreign cumulative is a hefty $237.5 million, which gives the Marvel-based movie, which cost $150 million to produce, a worldwide total of $382.9 million—a performance that likely already insures that there will be a Thor II.
 
Universal’s Fast Five fell 48% in its fourth weekend as it earned $10.6 million and brought its year-to-date leading domestic total to $186.2 million. It appears unlikely that Thor will be able to catch Fast Five, though some other summer blockbuster will likely do so.
 
Sony’s 3-D manhwa-based Priest tumbled 69.2% in its sophomore session as it earned $4.6 million and slipped to #6 behind Rio, which is in its sixth week. Priest, which cost an estimated $60 million to produce, has earned $23.6 million domestically so far and will likely finish south of $35 million. The Paul Bettany-starring film has done slightly better overseas where it has brought in $26.5 million, but it appears that any chance to reach profitability will depend on DVD.
 
Next weekend is Memorial Day when The Hangover: Part II will compete for the young male demographic along with Pirates, Thor, and Fast Five, while Kung Fu Panda 2 will lure in the family audience. After that extended weekend, which will give all the big films a chance to pad their stats, X-Men: First Class debuts on June 3rd and we will be in one of the most competitive months of June in box office history.