..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Kim Voynar
..Michael Wilmington

July 9, 2006 Weekend Estimates Worldwide Grosses Domestic Market Share Yo, Ho, Ho and a Magnum of Dough! Wow! Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest debuted to a staggering $132.9 million and effectively rewrote the box office record book. The film's opening day gross of $55 million surpassed Star Wars: Episode III by roughly $5 million and its weekend was about $18 million better than that of former champ Spider-Man. Overall weekend revenues of more than $215 million also set a new benchmark. While the Pirates sequel was the only new title in national release, there were a number of platform and regional openers including the animated A Scanner Darkly and Le Secret de ma mere in Quebec that both opened well in limited exposure. By the time industry execs arrived at their offices Friday morning, news of a $9 million gross from 12:01 a.m. screenings had everyone's attention. The following morning's estimated $55 million for opening day pretty much set the stage for a new individual weekend record with initial estimates (based on Friday's performance) as high as $140 million. Casting aside the obvious brawny statistics, the singular achievement of the new movie is that it's the first seasonal event picture to exceed industry expectations. The folks at Disney were crossing fingers and toes in hopes that Dead Man's Chest would creep to $100 million in its first three days. The tacit mantra at ShoWest 2006 was that the major's summer release schedule was going to create a box office tsunami that would reinvigorate film going. However, beginning with Mission: Impossible III, title after title had opening salvos that spawned articles and chatter of below par performance. Leading up to the current weekend, this summer was running about 6% ahead of last year, behind the record 2004 summer, and about 1% better than 2005 admissions. Pirates is certainly an upturn in fortunes and if the few remaining seasonal heavyweights mirror its opening, the season will be more than salvaged. Internationally, the film was hearty but not foolhardy as it adopted the "let's not compete with World Cup fever" scenario adopted for the season. Apart from the United Kingdom, Pirates kept its distance with openings in Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Thailand and Korea that generated an estimated $46.6 million for the six territories. Individually, Britain was projecting a $25 million frame with Korea at $9 million and Australia at $8.2 million. The potency of the scurvy crew was reflected in hefty box office boosts of 40% from last weekend and 47% compared to 2005. A year ago the frame leader was the $56 million debut of Fantastic Four. It's difficult to assess Dead Man's Chest precise impact on holdover titles but simply put declines were steeper than usual but far from devastating commercial momentum. Superman Returns experienced a 55% drop while The Devil Wears Prada ebbed back by 45%. The all quadrant appeal of the swashbuckler was apparent, whether assessing business for Click or An Inconvenient Truth. The adaptation of the sci-fi tale A Scanner Darkly generated better than a $21,000 average from 17 initial engagements. Filmed traditionally and then animated provided the film with an appropriate other worldliness and very good initial box office. The family comedy-drama Le Secret de ma mere had a good start in Quebec of $232,000 at 87 theaters and the U.S. bow of Heading South (Vers le sud) had a potent $44,200 from its initial two engagements. - by Leonard Klady Weekend Estimates - July 7-9, 2006 Title Distributor Gross (average) % change Theaters Cume Pirates of Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest BV 132.9 (32,160) - 4133 132.9 Superman Returns WB 22.4 (5,500) -57% 4065 142.2 The Devil Wears Prada Fox 15.2 (5,270) -45% 2882 63.3 Click Sony 12.0 (3,460) -40% 3458 105.9 Cars BV 9.9 (2,940) -32% 3379 205.1 Nacho Libre Par 3.4 (1,490) -49% 2262 73.9 The Lake House WB 2.9 (1,190) -40% 2420 45.6 Fast & Furious: Tokyo Drift Uni 2.5 (1,350) -44% 1868 57.4 Waist Deep Focus 1.8 (2,120) -47% 864 19.1 The Break-Up Uni 1.7 (1,410) -44% 1180 114.3 The Da Vinci Code Sony 1.4 (1,390) -42% 1012 213.3 An Inconvenient Truth Par Classics 1.1 (1,980) -34% 562 15 X-Men: The Last Stand Fox .91 (1,090) -59% 832 231.3 Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties Fox .87 (680) -60% 1288 22.4 A Prairie Home Companion Picturehouse .81 (1,130) -43% 717 15.6 Over the Hedge Par .71 (940) -44% 758 148.3 Weekend Total ($500,000+ Films) $210.50 - - - % Change (Last Year) -- 47% - - - % Change (Last Week) -- 40% - - - Also debuting/expanding A Scanner Darkly WIP .37 (21,940) - 17 0.37 Wordplay IFC .29 (2,340) -6% 125 1.4 Le Secret de ma mere Alliance .23 (2,680) - 87 0.23 Strangers with Candy Thinkfilm .18 (8,760) 328% 21 0.28 Heading South Shadow 44,200 (22,100) - 2 0.04 Once in a Lifetime Miramax 11,800 (11,800) - 1 0.01 Top Domestic Grosses: January 1 - June 29, 2006 X-Men: The Last Stand Fox 226,483,394 The Da Vinci Code Sony 207,492,832 Ice Age: The Meltdown Fox 193,640,718 Cars BV 168,021,783 Over the Hedge Par 146,438,334 Mission: Impossible III Par 131,830,760 The Break-Up Uni 107,239,150 Scary Movie 4 Weinstein Co. 89,873,819 Failure to Launch Par 88,822,973 Inside Man Uni 88,469,545 The Pink Panther Sony 83,137,123 The Chronicles of Narnia * BV 82,270,870 Eight Below BV 81,612,565 Brokeback Mountain * Focus 70,615,735 V for Vendetta WB 70,503,491 Big Momma's House 2 Fox 70,165,972 RV Sony 67,416,072 Medea's Family Reunion Lions Gate 63,445,832 Underworld: Evolution Sony 62,615,442 The Shaggy Dog BV 60,662,059 Domestic Market Share: January 1 - June 29, 2006 Fox (15) 788 17.90% Sony (17) 760.9 17.30% Buena Vista (16) 561.1 12.70% Paramount (9) 503.4 11.40% Universal (12) 500.1 11.30% Warner Bros. (13) 367.9 8.40% Weinstein Co. (9) 191.5 4.30% Lions Gate (11) 166.5 3.80% New Line (7) 119.2 2.70% Focus (8) 113.4 2.60% Fox Searchlight (7) 96.1 2.20% Sony Classics (13) 47.5 1.10% DreamWorks (3) 24.7 0.60% MGM (1) 22.5 0.50% Other * (153) 142.4 3.20% - 4405.2 100.00%