'Pirates' Does Decent Business on Thursday, 'Baywatch' Struggles
by EG
Disney's Memorial Day tentpole Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales unfurled Thursday night at the North American box office with $5.5 million in previews.
Pirates 5, returning Johnny Depp in the title role as the zany Captain Jack Sparrow, should easily win the holiday with $80 million or more for the four days. Still, that would mark the lowest start for the series behind the first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl.
Baywatch — directed by Seth Gordon and starring man-of-the-moment Dwayne Johnson alongside Zac Efron — is faring worse among critics. The R-rated film adaptation of the classic television show currently holds a 19 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Paramount and Skydance decided to get a jump on the holiday weekend and launch Baywatch on Thursday. The movie grossed a disappointing $4.5 million on Thursday from 3,647 theater and will need to pick up the pace in a major way if it is to even hit $30 million for the five days.
Read the rest of this article at The Hollywood Reporter.
Dwayne Johnson has recently appeared in The Fate of the Furious.