May 23, 2011 by Vinnie Leduc
Despite bad reviews, ours included (here), Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides sailed away with $90.1 million domestically last weekend, good for the biggest opening this year by racing past Fast Five‘s $86.2 million opening last month (here) albeit lower than both Pirates sequels’ opening takes. Additionally, the fourth installment of Disney’s coveted theme-park ride-based franchise set an overseas box office record with $256.3 million, substantially more than the previous best foreign opening by Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince‘s $236 million. You know what this means, right? More Pirates movies ahoy! In 3D! Especially with how On Stranger Tides ended with a post-credits stinger.
Meanwhile, strong word-of-mouth helped Bridesmaids (our review) to just a 20% second weekend drop (even lower than those of Wedding Crashers, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, and the original Hangover) from last week’s $26.2 million. Here are last weekend’s top domestic box office takes via BOM:
- Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides – Weekend/Total Gross: $90.2 million total (new)
- Bridesmaids – Weekend Gross: $21 million – Total Gross: $57.5 million (#2 last weekend)
- Thor – Weekend Gross: $15.5 million – Total Gross: $145.4 million (#1 last weekend)
- Fast Five – Weekend Gross: $10.6 million – Total Gross: $186.2 million (#3 last weekend)
- Priest – Weekend Gross: $4.8 million – Total Gross: $23.6 million (#4 last weekend)
