This weekend Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest became the fastest film ever to pass the $300 million mark (16 days) and the first film of 2006 to top the weekend box office three weeks in a row.  Pirates suffered a mere 43.8% drop-off while still managing a healthy $8,480 per venue.  Nothing is going to stop this film from earning $400 million (it has already made $322 million) and no 2006 release is going to catch it. 

One of the new films Pirates bested was Kevin Smith's Clerks 2, which performed solidly, earning an estimated $9.6 million.  Clerks 2 cost only $5 million to make, which means that unlike Superman Returns, Clerks 2 was profitable after its opening weekend.  Smith's aging slackers epic earned a solid $4,500 per location -- the only bad sign was a box office decline from Friday to Saturday, indicating that the hardcore Clerks fans hit the theaters on opening night.  The fate of Clerks 2, which has received some excellent notices, will depend on word of mouth.

Clerks 2 managed to best the far more expensive (and more heavily promoted) My Super Ex-Girlfriend -- a 'comic book' type movie that was based not on comic, but on a 'high concept' Hollywood pitch -- 'what if we combined Fatal Attraction and Wonder Woman?'

Pixar's Cars fell to #10 during its seventh week of release, but still added $5 million to its coffers bringing its total to $229.5 million.  This week it should pass X-Men: The Last Stand to become the second highest grossing film of 2006.   Cars' performance this past weekend is especially noteworthy because it took place in the shadow of Sony's 3-D animated comedy Monster House, which earned great reviews and $23 million at the box office -- good enough for second place in the box office derby.

Superman Returns had another good outing, earning nearly $7.4 million in its fourth week.  The Man of Steel is demonstrating some solid legs so far and should earn more than $200 million and end up topping Batman Begins' total.  Superman Returns has also earned more than $110 million overseas, where its results are slow in showing up due to delayed releases in many markets resulting from conflicts with the World Cup.