Web Desk (May 29, 2017): Disney’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” is sailing into first place at the domestic box office this weekend, but the story the numbers dictate is not one of swashbuckling heroics.
Johnny Depp’s fifth outing as Jack Sparrow is looking at a three-day total of $62.2 million from 4,276 locations, and a four-day holiday weekend sum of $77 million. If not for international appeal, that would be a let down for a movie riding on a $230 million production budget.
Moving ahead with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” would mean navigating around critics and wooing back disappointed fans. But the profit potential was too big to ignore. The fourth chapter, subtitled “On Stranger Tides,” was roundly seen as a creative dud, but it still took in $1 billion worldwide. Disney, convinced it could reinvigorate the franchise by fixing certain problems — nonsensical story lines, lackluster new characters — pressed forward.
The first place finish also can’t cover up a serious case of franchise fatigue. “Dead Men Tell No Tales” is the lowest opening for a Pirates movie apart from the original, which earned over $46 million in its first weekend (and was also the only installation approved by critics). Last time out in 2011, “On Stranger Tides” pulled in $90 million in its opening weekend. That’s still less than 2007’s “At World’s End” ($114.7 million) and 2006’s “Dead Man’s Chest” ($135.6 million). But it’s no question why Disney is still churning out sequels — within the next few days, the franchise will have made over $4 billion worldwide.
“Dead Men Tell No Tales” centers on Sparrow battling deadly ghost sailors, led by Javier Bardem’s Captain Salazar. Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg directed the film, which also sees the return of both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, who were absent from the fourth installment.
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