(Updated with finals) Weekend Box Office 22/5/11, Pirates breaks records, Fast 5 & Thor hit milestones.

I thought it’d be good to do a regular box office update, during the “summer” season at least.

There’s no doubt that the biggest deal of the year so far is Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides. Whilst I (and many others) think the film itself is a massively disappointing piece of garbage, it was always going to open huge as the first three are so massively popular and well liked. (I was there on opening night, along with millions of others, based on how much I enjoyed the first three. Whilst the N. American opening *edit$90.15m* reflects the fact that the third film was not as popular there as elsewhere (Pirates 2 opened to $135m and Pirates 3 $114m.) it does also show that the films were a lot more popular than the media would have us believe. More on that here:-

http://therealeverton.blogspot.com/2011/05/pirates-of-caribbean-curse-of-sequels.html

Outside of N. America things were very different, reflecting the point that Pirates 2 & 3 were pretty much equally popular (in straight dollar terms 3 actually out-grossed 2 with $654,000,000 to Pirates 3’s $642,863,913), Pirates grossed *$260,400,000* over 5 days; that’s the biggest international opening of all time. Illustrating the changing face of international cinema Russia & China were the biggest markets for Pirates with Russians spending $28.6m over 5 days to mean it has already out-grossed the total take for POTC: At World’s End! $20m from China meant that the markets often 1 & 2, Japan & the UK, came further down; with the UK & Ireland grossing $19.5m, Germany $19.4 and Japan $18.2m.

Here’s the North American and International charts for the weekend. (Pirates opened on Wednesday in many countries but Hollywood still counts that as a weekend.)

North America

Film		Weekend Gross (est)	Total Gross (est)	Budget
1	POTC: On Stranger Tides	$90,151,958	$90,151,958	$250m
2	Bridesmaids	$20,882,070	$59,341,310	$32.5m
3	Thor	$15,455,304	$145,361,459	$150m
4	Fast Five	$10,576,865	$186,165,450	$125m
5	Priest	$4,750,041	$23,833,169	$60m
6	Rio	$4,687,741	$131,684,365	$90m
7	Jumping The Broom	$3,703,010	$31,3120,562	$6.6m
8	Something Borrowed	$3,516,387	$31,519,452	$35m
9	Water For Elephants	$2,179,046	$52,456,620	$38m
10	Tyler Perry’s Madea’s Big Happy Family	$956,589	$51,723,579	Unknown

International...

Film		Weekend Gross (est)	Total Gross (est)	Budget
1	POTC: On Stranger Tides	$260,400,000	$260,400,000	$250m
2	Fast Five	$26,200,000	$321,200,000	$125m
3	Thor	$9,000,000	$247,000,000	$150m
4	Rio	$5,600,000	$317,300,000	$90m
5	Water For Elephants	$5,100,000	$45,500,000	$38m
6	Priest	$4,200,000	$37,300,000	$60m
7	Tree of Life	$2,600,000	$2,600,000	unknown
8	Midnight In Paris	$2,400,000	$7,700,000	$30,000,000
9	Source Code	$2,200,000	$57,800,000	$32m
10	Black Swan	$2,200,000	$204,600,000	$13m

Worldwide...

Film		Weekend Gross (est)	Total Gross (est)	Budget
1	POTC: On Stranger Tides	$350,551,958	$350,551,958	$250m
2	Fast Five	$36,776,865	$507,365,450	$125m
3	Thor	$24,455,304	$392,361,459	$150m
4	Bridesmaids	$20,882,070	$59,394,935	$32.5m
5	Rio	$10,287,741	$448,984,365	$90m

Elsewhere Fast Five passed the $500m mark which is amazing and has to be better than ever expected. Fast six was always hoped for (see here for more on that:- http://therealeverton.blogspot.com/2011/05/fast-five-ending-mini-post.html ) but even with the switch in focus, cast reunion and addition of Dwayne Johnson this has to be seen as a major success: Which leads us to the next biggie, Thor. That Fast Five has made $500m whilst up against Thor for most of its release is very impressive, even more impressive is the Thor is about to cross the $400m mark despite being in direct competition to a major sequel and having a relatively unknown character and star to boot. Having already passed all the milestones it would have been hoped it would meet (significantly out-grossing The Incredible Hulk and Fantastic Four films as well as X-Men and beating even the inflation adjusted international takings of Batman Begins, Superman Returns, The X-Men films and more.)