Pirates plunders Irish box office record

THE sequel to hit film Pirates of the Caribbean has broken the Irish boxoffice record, taking in more than €5 million to date.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest – has become Buena Vista’s biggest box office result ever in this country.

The sequel surpassed the previous record holder, The Chronicles of Narnia, which took €4.8m, and overtook other films including the 2003 original, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Toy Story II and Veronica Guerin. Buena Vista International (BVI) Ireland said the film has opened at number one in every international territory where it has been released.

The film’s three-day opening in the US was the biggest recorded with it taking in $132m (€103m). It took in $17m (€13.4m) more than the opening weekend of the previous record holder, Spider-Man, in 2002.

The film took more than $55m (€43.2m) on its first day of release in the US, more than any film made on a single day. It also surpassed the sum of $46.6m (€36.6m) which the original movie took in during its entire opening weekend.

During its weekend opening in the Republic of Ireland and the North it made just under €1.4m, the highest weekend opening for a Buena Vista release in the country.

The film, which stars Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, delivered the highest career openings for producer Jerry Bruckheimer anddirector Gore Verbinski.

Disney filmed most of the third film – Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End – at the same time as Dead Man’s Chest, and is due for release in cinemas in May 2007.