This year has already seen some huge opening weekend numbers, well before the usual crush of summer blockbuster movies. Disney's live-action reboot of "Beauty and the Beast" brought in over $175 million during its first weekend and is now well past the $500 million dollar mark in U.S. ticket sales alone. Sequels have paid studios dividends as well, with "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2" and "The Fate of the Furious" grossing $145 million and $100 million on their respective opening weekends. ("The Fate of the Furious" has since gone on to earn more than $1 billion worldwide.) This past weekend saw two highly-anticipated franchise films open, however; both failed to make a major splash at the box office.
Lowest earning 'Pirates' since original in 2003
Early projections of "Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" -- the fifth installment in the Disney-owned series -- expected the film to take in at least $115 million during its opening weekend, putting it only slightly below the other films in the series. Despite a massive and costly marketing campaign that included a multi-million dollar Super Bowl ad, the latest movie struggled to make two-thirds of that amount during its 4-day holiday weekend release.
By earning a mere $77 million, "Dead Men Tell No Tales" becomes the lowest grossing "Pirates" film since the original, which earned less than $47 million on its opening weekend back in 2003.
The total also lands this most recent installment outside of the Top 10 highest grossing Memorial Day weekend openings; producers must be disappointed, as the combination of the long weekend and a blockbuster sequel is usually a surefire hit for studios.
The big screen reboot of 90s beach-com "Baywatch" took up very little space at the box office in its debut weekend, faring even worse than "Pirates of the Caribbean." After a huge marketing push that focused on man-of-the-hour Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and a grown-up Zac Efron, the movie earned a dismal $22 million in audience receipts, roughly half of what experts had estimated going into the weekend.
Both of this weekend's new movies will now focus on drawing international audiences to theaters, as it would seem only the foreign box office can help either film recoup what look to be massive losses in North America.
Memorial Day is traditionally a hot weekend for sequels
The Memorial Day 4-day weekend has traditionally been a hot weekend for the Hollywood box office, especially with regard to big budget sequels.
Of the all-time biggest opening weekends that land on Memorial Day, 8 of the top 10 movies are sequels. But studios must be wondering if audiences are beginning to burn-out on what was once a foolproof way to rake in box office cash.
Despite some major box office returns coming from sequels and franchise films in 2017, there have been countless disappointments. "Underworld: Blood Wars" and "Resident Evil: The Final Chapter" quickly became the lowest earning titles in their series after being released in January. "xXx: The Return of Xander Cage" brought in less than $45 million in the U.S., or about 12% of what it made worldwide, while foreign audiences helped keep it from becoming a total monetary loss.
The horror franchise reboot "Rings" earned around $27 million, over $100 million less than its 2002 U.S. original, (although a remake of a foreign film) "The Ring."
Many studios seem to avoid investing large amounts in a production unless there is an established audience to show there is some merit to the project. However, audiences seem to have begun to waiver on all but a handful of franchise titles. Is it time for Hollywood to begin its return to original concepts? Not likely. A quick search comes up with 179 strongly rumored or confirmed sequels in the works by major studios over the next few years. Plus, the always hot Marvel cinematic universe has at least another 9 movies in some form of development, including two more releases in 2017. Audiences might be ready for something new, but the studios aren't quite ready to move on.
