The BBC News reports that Cars has pushed Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest off the top of the UK and Ireland box office chart.
Cars grossed £2.67m ($USD5 Mill) compared to Pirates of the Caribbean: DMC which earned £2.62m ($USD4.9 Mill) which is in it’s 4th week of release.
Both films’ combined grossings between Friday and Sunday was more than the rest of the UK’s top 10’s takings put together.
An excellent feat for Cars.
Thanks to Mark for the heads up
Last modified: August 2, 2006
go cars ! go cars ! yay !!! we rock ! pirates of carribean 2 stink !!! : P
I am a bit skeptical about how Cars will perform in the UK. While a #1 start is nothing to balk at, the numbers are not very encouraging. Both Over the Hedge and Ice Age 2 managed to earn more in their first weekends in the UK (OTH with $6.6M and IA2 with $17M compared to $4.9M for Cars). Pixar’s last outing, The Incredibles, racked in $18.4M back in 2004 on its way to over $50M total.
From what I’ve seen, it has gotten very lackluster reviews from the BBC. While I don’t believe everything critics say, a 2 out of 6 star user review rating from over two thousand people leads me to think that Cars won’t have much gas to run on there. Based on the opening, $20M total in the UK seems like the verdict.
Somehow, I don’t think Disney’s $600M worldwide expectation is going to come to pass.
While I love both movies, this does make me reminisce back to the year 2003 when Nemo & POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl reigned in the summer!
And to think: Next year they’ll probably share the summer again as well, with Ratatouille & POTC: 3!!!
Ah, it’s good to be a Disney-PIXAR fan!
It will be interesting. This year Cars was released just under a month before POTC:DMC and next year if POTC:DMC gets its Memorial Day (May 30) release date, POTC3 will be released just under a month before Ratatouille. I am not sure why so many people are giving POTC:DMC bad reviews. I really enjoyed it and it was a fun movie to watch. I sometimes wonder if critics know how to have fun and not be soo critical towards everything.
“And not be so critical towards everthing”
— Luxo Jr.
Luxo, that’s the DEFINITION of a critic!
On a happier note, I’ve just bought the Cars Soundtrack . . . looks absolutley spiffy next to my Pirate Soundtracks and “24” Soundtrack!!