LOS ANGELES -- In this battle on the high seas and the beach, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales overwhelmed Baywatch for Memorial Day weekend box-office victory.
The fifth installment in the Pirates franchise starring Johnny Depp, this time directed by Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, took in an estimated $78 million at the domestic box office over the four-day weekend, with an estimated global opening of more than $300 million. The franchise total will soon pass $4 billion.
"Pirates is a huge spectacle film, the kind that audiences around the world have been drawn to, certainly international audiences have been drawn to," said Dave Hollis, executive vice president of distribution for Disney. "We're making films for a global audience."
The weekend's other big title was Paramount's big-screen adaptation of the television series Baywatch, starring Dwayne Johnson and Zac Efron and directed by Seth Gordon, which managed to make it only to No. 3 at the box office. The film took in about $28 million from its Thursday opening.
In its fourth weekend of release, Disney's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 swiped the second place spot from Baywatch, bringing in about $27 million.
"The movie landscape has been littered with '80s reboots and remakes that have had a very mixed response," said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at industry tracking firm ComScore, who added that the relative silver lining for the Paramount picture's lackluster opening is that "Baywatch is not the only film in May to not perform well."
Rounding out the top five were Ridley Scott's sci-fi actioner Alien: Covenant with $13.4 million, bringing its total to about $60 million, and Stella Meghie's teen romantic drama Everything, Everything, with $7.7 million for a collective gross of $23 million.
The overall Memorial Day weekend estimate of $176 million is the lowest since 1999. "This has been one of the toughest kickoff summer months ever," Dergarabedian said. "The Memorial weekend sort of distills down what audiences thought of the May lineup."
Rounding out the Top 10 were Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul with $6.1 million, Snatched with $5 million, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword with $4.3 million, The Boss Baby with $2.5 million and Beauty and the Beast with $2 million.
Despite the lackluster totals, the industry can pin its hopes on a slate of promising releases this month, including Wonder Woman, which opens today; The Mummy; Cars 3; Transformers: The Last Knight; Baby Driver; and Despicable Me 3.
"The good news is we have seen many a summer start off really strong with incredible May performances, only to see the bottom drop out later in the summer. And there is a lot on the way," Dergarabedian said. "You're only as up or down as your last hit or failure, and I think for the industry, we just want to get May off the books and get into June."
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Monday, (followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Tuesday by comScore:
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Disney, $78,476,767, 4,276 locations, $18,353 average, $78,476,767, one week.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, Disney, $27,189,151, 3,871 locations, $7,024 average, $340,505,078, four weeks.
Baywatch, Paramount, $23,106,943, 3,647 locations, $6,336 average, $27,713,457, one week.
Alien: Covenant, 20th Century Fox, $13,383,150, 3,772 locations, $3,548 average, $60,205,331, two weeks.
Everything, Everything, Warner Bros., $7,666,282, 2,801 locations, $2,737 average, $23,022,395, two weeks.
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul, 20th Century Fox, $6,121,371, 3,174 locations, $1,929 average, $15,303,332, two weeks.
Snatched, 20th Century Fox, $5,085,158, 2,658 locations, $1,913 average, $41,364,783, three weeks.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Warner Bros., $4,302,088, 2,503 locations, $1,719 average, $34,957,290, three weeks.
The Boss Baby, 20th Century Fox, $2,460,939, 1,342 locations, $1,834 average, $169,718,129, nine weeks.
Beauty and the Beast, Disney, $2,013,748, 1,076 locations, $1,872 average, $501,014,183, 11 weeks.
The Fate of the Furious, Universal, $1,891,515, 1,358 locations, $1,393 average, $222,942,385, seven weeks.
How to Be a Latin Lover, Lionsgate, $1,307,097, 669 locations, $1,954 average, $31,217,677, five weeks.
The Lovers, A24, $842,001, 443 locations, $1,901 average, $1,489,460, four weeks.
Lowriders, OTL Releasing, $790,630, 334 locations, $2,367 average, $5,378,765, three weeks.
Norman: The Moderate Rise and the Tragic Fall of a New York Fixer, Sony Pictures Classics, $643,875, 324 locations, $1,987 average, $3,150,101, seven weeks.
Paris Can Wait, Sony Pictures Classics, $560,574, 70 locations, $8,008 average, $964,517, three weeks.
Gifted, Fox Searchlight, $517,599, 380 locations, $1,362 average, $23,761,037, eight weeks.
The Wedding Plan, Roadside Attractions, $411,773, 98 locations, $4,202 average, $696,271, three weeks.
Sachin: A Billion Dreams, Viva Entertainment, $411,643, 100 locations, $4,116 average, $411,643, one week.
Smurfs: The Lost Village, Columbia, $379,387, 362 locations, $1,048 average, $43,711,826, eight weeks.
MovieStyle on 06/02/2017