By Steven BergerThe Daily Northwestern
This week’s release of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is the third of three titanic releases in May thus far. Moviegoers who have already shuffled to see Spider-Man 3 and Shrek the Third might find themselves At Pocket’s End.
Never before have two films from these three franchises been released within the same month. Now, as if in some Hollywood all-star scheme, they are all landing in theaters within a three-week span. So will this big competition have an effect on business?
Film critic Josh Larsen, of LarsenOnFilm.com, says the name alone would have been enough to ensure success, even if another big summer movie were to open a week later.
“Releasing three huge franchise movies in the same month shouldn’t significantly cut into any of their profits because these are the types of films people are going to make a point of seeing anyway,” he says in an e-mail. “It’s not as if someone who was looking forward to seeing Pirates is not going to do so because they have just seen Shrek the previous weekend.”
Between themselves, the big three franchises have shattered record upon record. They have bitten at each other’s heels, with records changing hands multiple times. Spider-Man 3 had the highest-grossing opening weekend of all time with $151 million, beating out Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest with the previous record of nearly $136 million.
Since the release of the first Spider-Man in 2002, which had the highest-grossing opening weekend at the time with $115 million, only successive Spider-Man and Pirates of the Caribbean films have held the record, with the exclusion of the brief one-month reign of 2006’s X-Men: The Last Stand. Spider-Man, Shrek and Pirates films hold six of the top 10 highest-grossing opening weekends in the US, with every film in each franchise represented except the first Pirates and Shrek movies.
The month of May has historically seen a lot of attention from movie studios for being farther than April from holiday releases, but still not quite summer. May has been host to four of the five highest-grossing U.S. releases, and 14 of the top 50 – two more than June, the second-highest blockbuster release month.
“The studios want to open in May because that gives them the whole rest of the summer to earn this repeat business,” Larsen says.
Communication freshman Dan Siegel says much of the success these three franchises have enjoyed is due to the inventiveness of the original films.
“It doesn’t really matter that they’ll be good -what matters is people will go to relive some of that joy and excitement from the first one,” he says. “There is a little something for everyone.”
Medill freshman Rena Behar also attributes their success to the likability of the first outings.
“Pop-culture in general has become a lot more of a single-mass phenomenon,” she says. “There are certain franchises like Pirates – everyone sees Pirates of the Caribbean.”
May 2008 isn’t letting up on heavy-hitters, either. Marvel’s Iron Man is set to hit theaters May 2, two weeks before the release of the second film in another franchise, Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. The week after, May 22, the long-awaited Indiana Jones 4 is scheduled to release. A remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still as well as a live-action adaptation of Speed Racer is also green-lighted for the same month.
Now that Pirates is in theaters this year, the big three have the next few months to duke it out. Spider-Man 3’s presence in the theaters didn’t bite into Shrek the Third’s business too much, so it’s likely to be smooth sailing for Pirates through opening weekend.4
Medill freshman Steven Berger is a PLAY writer. He can be reached at [email protected]
