Weekend Box Office: 'Pirates' and 'Baywatch' May Struggle
by EG
Hollywood is hoping that choppy waters subside at the early summer box office when Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales and Baywatch set sail over Memorial Day weekend.
Pirates 5 — the latest installment in the franchise that returns Johnny Depp in the title role as the zany Captain Jack Sparrow — should easily wave the flag of victory in terms of winning the holiday frame with a North American debut of $80 million to $85 million 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, which debuted to $46 million in 2003 on its way to earning a stunning $305.3 million domestically and $654 million globally, not accounting for inflation.
Baywatch — directed by Seth Gordon and starring man-of-the-moment Dwayne Johnson alongside Zac Efron — is even more of a question mark. In a bold and risky move, Paramount decided to make the film adaptation of the classic television show R-rated, with as many F-bombs as bikinis.
Read the rest of this article at The Hollywood Reporter.
Last week's top movie was Alien: Covenant, despite its disappointing box-office performance.