Weekend Box Office #33

This weekend PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END sets another record, opening in 4362 theaters, on over 11,000 screens.

I'm not sure it'll break SPIDERMAN 3's recent 3-day-weekend box office record, because the last PIRATES movie was a bit underwhelming, and audiences might take a wait-and-see approach to this one. Plus it's a reported 2 hours and 47 minutes long, which means that the number of showings is going to be cut down each day.

Still, with 11,000 screens, you don't need a lot of showings.

I'm going to predict $138 million for the first three days, though it could do more, particularly with Sunday being the day before a holiday. The numbers will also be confused by the fact that they started showing the movie at 8 last night.

Figure it'll probably do $175-200 million through Monday, counting Thursday night and Monday.

The only other movie opening wide is BUG, which opens on 1661 screens. Look for it to do about $8 million for the four-day weekend.