Look out 'Titanic,' here comes 'Pirates'
Posted Thursday, July 13, 2006 at 3:53 PM Central
by John Couture
Just when people thought it was impossible to sink Titanic a second time, James Cameron did that very feat in his 1997 movie. Now, that "unsinkable ship" is close to capsizing for a third time.
With Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest breaking every record under the sun this week, the water cooler talk naturally brings up the big one. The $600,788,188 question. Can Pirates 2 unseat Titanic as the highest grossing movie of all-time?
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest set records for highest grossing non-holiday three day weekend with $135.6 million, easily surpassing Spider-Man's $114.8 million. Heck, it even blew away Aquaman's mythical $116 million bow. It set records for highest Monday and Tuesday this week, besting last month's super hyped The Omen remake's 6/6/6 opening haul. According to BoxOfficeMojo.com, it is the highest grossing movie through 6 days of release regardless of holiday weekend or not. But, can it unearth the greatest sunken treasure of them all?
I wouldn't bet on it. Take a guess where Titanic falls on the best 6 days of business list. No really, guess. Nope, no where near the list. In fact, Titanic didn't surpass $100 million until 1998, well into its third week of release. Call this a real life Tortoise and Hare scenario.
Being the massive ship that she was, Titanic didn't set any speed records, but she certainly had the legs of a centipede. Titanic spent a record 15 consecutive weeks at the top of the box office. 15!!! That's almost four months. It didn't get dethroned until April when all the icebergs were melted. Here's a trivia question that you'll use on your friends later, name the movie that knocked Titanic from its top spot. I'll throw the answer in at the bottom.
Titanic was a once in a lifetime event that reached its singular milestone through a congruence of events that will not likely ever occur again. It came out right before Christmas and got sizeable bumps from the holiday crowd. It got nominated for 14 Oscars, bringing home top honors in 11 categories. It had the Leo factor. While it's debatable if Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp can measure up, one thing is certain. In 1998, there wasn't any male actor more desirable by teenage girls than Leonardo DiCaprio. Their repeat business did wonders for Titanic.
But longevity isn't all it's cracked up to be either, as evidenced by Beverly Hills Cop and Porky's inclusion on the top 10 list of movies spending consecutive weeks at #1. In fact, only one other movie from the 1990s (Home Alone) is on the list and no movies from this millennium were up to snuff.
What does this mean? It means that the norm in Hollywood is to make your business quickly and then fade into the sunset just as fast. In other words, it's a good thing that Pirates 2 is setting records now, because in the following weeks a couple of stoners, a bad TV remake or a redneck with the need for speed may steal the Pirates' booty.
The bottom line, I think that as Summer wanes people will lose interest in those watery scoundrels and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest will end up right around $450 million, challenging Star Wars for second place. But Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, that's another story altogether.
** For the trivia buffs still holding on for the answer. It was none other than that cinematic gem Lost in Space that played the part of the iceberg in Titanic's box office run.