Pirates 3 set for global day-and-date launch in 2007

On the weekend that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest passed the $1bn worldwide gross mark, The Walt Disney Company has revealed that sequel Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End will be released day-and-date around the world next summer.

"We're going to open on the weekend of May 25 in every country around the world," said Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group president Mark Zoradi of the third installment of Jerry Bruckheimer's massively successful Pirates franchise.

"It will be our widest release ever," Zoradi added, "and it will be the first time that our company has done a literal day-and-date release."

To avoid competing with this summer's World Cup football tournament, Dead Man's Chest did not make its international debut until early July, opening in a few territories - among them France, the UK and Australia - on the same weekend as its July 7 domestic release. The film rolled out to other markets through July and August and is set for its final major-territory opening, in Italy, next weekend. Until this weekend (when Disney's Cars took over) it had been the top-grossing international film for nine straight weekends.

However, with so much built in awareness for the third film, Zoradi said, "all we need to do is get the trailer out there, put together a good campaign and I think the audience is going to be with us."

At World's End will once again star Johnny Depp, Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley, with Gore Verbinski directing. Its international appeal may be boosted by the additions to the cast of Australia's Geoffrey Rush (who also appeared in the first film) and Asian star Chow Yun-Fat.

The third film - sections of which are being shot in Asia - will conclude the initial Pirates trilogy, though it is unlikely to be the last Pirates sequel. "It's not a remake," Zoradi said. "It's going to feel different, it's going to have a different colour palette and it's going to wrap up a lot of story points."

Dead Man's Chest has just become only the third film ever - after Titanic and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - to gross more than $1bn worldwide. This weekend, the film's international total climbed to $592.4m and its domestic tally to $416.6m, producing a worldwide figure of $1,009,000,000.

International distributor Buena Vista International pointed out that Dead Man's Chest reached the $1bn benchmark far quicker - just 63 days - than the other two films, and did so without the help of awards season recognition.

Next weekend, Dead Man's Chest will become Buena Vista International's widest ever release in Italy. A big gross in that territory could improve the film's current standing as the sixth highest international grosser ever.

source: Screen Daily
published on: 11 September, 2006
by: John Hazelton
This article was posted on the JohnnyDepp-Zone by emma