Huayu Entertainment 1995 started with hijacking.

Chapter 320 Breaking Records!
"Pirates of the Caribbean 2 breaks single-day box office record with 6080 million!"

"Pirates of the Caribbean 2 breaks records and sparks a movie-going frenzy!"

"Pirates of the Caribbean 2 sets a new record for the highest opening weekend in North America with $6080 million!"

"The Pirate King: Dead Man's Chest, which opened on the 9th, grossed a whopping $60.8 million on its opening day. This is the first film in North American history to gross over $60 million in a single day. It not only broke the record set by Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith last year, but also set a new record for the highest opening day and single-day box office in film history!"

When the opening day box office figures for "The Pirate King 2" came out, they shocked the entire Hollywood.

It wasn't that no one had high hopes for *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales*, but even those who did believed it would be a remarkable achievement if it reached the level of *Spider-Man 2*. Many more, however, thought *Spider-Man 2* would be the biggest winner of the year, and that *Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales* would be hard to surpass.

Unexpectedly, the opening day box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" has not only surpassed that of "Spider-Man 2", but has also broken the record set by "Star Wars: Episode III" and increased both the opening day box office and the single-day box office to over 60 million!
That's 6000 million! Most Hollywood movies don't even gross that much in total!
Consider that the three big-budget films, "Around the World in 6000 Days," "Catwoman," and "King Arthur," which grossed over 1 million yuan each, didn't even reach 2 million yuan in their opening weekend combined. Yet, they were overtaken by "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" in just one day!

The whole of Hollywood has gone crazy!

Now no one dares to say that Spider-Man 2 will become the highest-grossing film of the year, and nobody knows what the final box office number of Pirate King 2 will be.

The well-known forecasting firm CinemaScore also unusually released its box office prediction for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" immediately after the premiere: $1.5 million in North America's opening weekend, $5 million in North America, and $10 billion worldwide!
Each of these figures is quite staggering. There are only a few movies that have broken the 10 billion mark, and the $1.5 million opening weekend will break the record of $1.38 million set by Spider-Man 2. But CinemaScore dares to make such a claim!
When Saturday's box office figures came out, everyone believed that the prediction would definitely come true, because Saturday's box office figure was $6128 million, once again raising the North American single-day box office record!
In just two days, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" grossed $1.22 million. It also became the first film in the world to surpass the $100 million mark on its second day of release!

Everyone thinks that "Pirate King 2" is insane!

An entertainment news anchor remarked, "All the box office losses from this summer's big-budget flops have been covered by 'Pirates of the Caribbean 2'!"

However, at this moment, Wu Yuchen was looking at the two very close numbers, 6080 and 6128.

Generally speaking, if a movie premieres on a Friday, its box office on Saturday will be higher than that on Friday, by about 10%-20%.

And what about Pirate King 2? It only increased by 48, less than 1%...

In fact, Wu Yuchen also knew the reason, which was probably due to two situations.

On the one hand, the potential of the North American market has already been almost fully exploited by "Pirate King 2". The number of viewers that can be attracted in a single day is the maximum.

On the other hand, the number of cinemas, that is, 4323 cinemas, has roughly the limit in terms of the number of viewers it can accommodate and the box office revenue it can generate, unless movie ticket prices increase later.

Since the price failed to rise on Saturday, a decline on Sunday is inevitable.

Then, Wu Yuchen asked another important question he was concerned about: "How is the film's reputation?"

The person in charge reported to him somewhat nervously:
"Director Wu, according to our investigation, the reputation of 'Pirate King 2' is currently A-, which is a decline compared to the first film."

After he finished speaking, he glanced at Wu Yuchen, fearing that the super director who had just set a crazy box office record might be dissatisfied with the result and get angry at him, so he immediately added: "However, we believe that many people expressed their dissatisfaction because the ending left some questions unanswered."

Wu Yuchen nodded after listening, showing no signs of anger. In fact, the reputation of "Pirate King 2" was destined to decline.

After all, the first film was groundbreaking, and people were amazed by the newly emerged, novel, and mysterious pirate world. But in the second film, even if you expand the world-building and unveil more mysteries, that sense of amazement is gone; at best, it just continues the audience's experience.

Therefore, leaving a cliffhanger at the end of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was actually a smart move, because the novelty of the third film would decrease further. Using suspense to keep the audience in the theater is very beneficial for the box office of the final film.

Of course, this approach is bold and risky. If the film's content isn't exciting enough, it will be heavily criticized by audiences, and the third installment would be ruined. Fortunately, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" didn't falter and maintained a high standard.

According to Wu Yuchen, an A-level reputation is sufficient, and even a B level or above is acceptable, as it will not affect the long-term revenue of "Pirate King 2".

After eliminating any potential problems with "The Pirate King 2", Wu Yuchen's face began to light up with a smile. In fact, as the director, he was naturally very happy to achieve such good results, but he just wanted to make sure that he could do even better!

Because of his influence, the current "Pirate King 2" has achieved even more dazzling results than the original.

Regarding the film's quality, he believed it to be superior to his previous life's. As for off-screen factors…

Before "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," there was "Superman Returns," which, although also a box office flop, was still much better than "King Arthur." Now, with "King Arthur" being such a massive flop before "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" is released, it's really created a favorable environment for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2." Furthermore, Wu Yuchen has secured more theaters to release it.

Therefore, it is reasonable that the current box office is higher than that of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" at the same time.

Since the previous film, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," broke the 10 billion box office mark, he believed that "Pirate King 2" would create an even higher number!
On Sunday, the box office for "The Pirate King 2" dropped significantly compared to the previous two days, to 4683 million.

This number brought a sigh of relief to everyone in Hollywood, who were truly afraid that "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" would become an unstoppable monster, even defying the usual Sunday drop. Fortunately, that didn't happen! Actually, a single-day box office of $4683 million is quite high for 99.9% of films, but the consecutive days of breaking $6000 million had a huge impact on Hollywood, so seeing this number now doesn't seem so bad.

Thus, the opening weekend figures for "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" are in: $16891 million, approximately 1.69 million!
Two months ago, Spider-Man 2's opening weekend box office record of 1.38 million was already astonishing, and now, Pirate King 2 has pushed that record up by another 3000 million!
1.69 million in 3 days! That's almost 1.5 million more than CinemaScore's prediction of 2000 million!
How much will it ultimately gross? 11 billion? 12 billion? Or 13 billion? Nobody dares to say!

"Captain Jack Sparrow's charm captivates the world!"

"Captain Jack Sparrow's pirate ship sparks a box office frenzy!"

"Wu Yuchen showcases amazing special effects; 'Pirate King 2' breaks opening weekend records!"

"Pirates of the Caribbean 2 gave audiences an even more complete audio-visual feast, with enormous octopuses, pirates who were a hybrid of humans and marine life, and exquisitely crafted pirate ships, all showcasing their captivating charm amidst grand and exciting music! Of course, the most astonishing thing was the record-breaking box office of 1.69 million!"

Spielberg couldn't contain his excitement and joy during the interview:

"We were clearly taken aback by this situation. Whenever you break an industry record, the word 'ecstasy' comes to mind! I don't know how high the final box office of Pirate King 2 will be, but 1.69 million in 3 days is a figure I couldn't have imagined before! I just want to enjoy the surprise right now!"
Yes, whether it's director Wu Yuchen, or Johnny Depp, Hugh Jackman, and Keira Knightley, they are all fantastic and indispensable parts of "Pirates of the Caribbean"!

For Spielberg, the idea of ​​selling DreamWorks had been vaguely conceived before, but now it has been completely dispelled. With such a profitable "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, why would he sell it?

When he was investing, he was worried that filming the Pirate King sequels two and three back-to-back would be too risky. Now he just wants to continue making more films, preferably a ten-film series!
The momentum of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" has put a lot of pressure on "I, Robot," which is set to be released in a few days. North America is currently going crazy over the milestones set by this film, and the promotional effect of "I, Robot" will be greatly reduced.

Will Smith said to the head of PR at Fox, "Hey, what are we going to do now? You guys need to come up with a solution!"

The other person opened their mouth, then sighed and said, "The solution is simple: we do our own promotion well, while simultaneously badmouthing 'Pirate King 2' to lower its reputation. But, Will, I really can't guarantee how effective that will be. 'Pirate King 2' is very difficult to shake now..."

"Damn it! What kind of lousy release date did you guys choose! Why did you have to pick one so close to the release of 'Pirate King 2'? Wouldn't last month have been better? Wouldn't next month have been better? Fuck!"

Will Smith was also cursing rapidly.

The PR manager glanced at Will Smith. If he remembered correctly, this guy had once casually declared he feared no one, and that Spider-Man couldn't do anything to him. However, he wouldn't mock him now; after all, they needed this big star for publicity!
Will Smith knew that cursing was useless, so after calming down for a while, he could only discuss with the other party the additional promotional schedule that would be added in the next few days.

In the following days, Will Smith was very busy, giving interviews, recording shows, appearing on television, and going to the radio station in the evening to rap a few lines and call on his Black friends to support him.

It wasn't until "I, Robot" was released that he realized all his efforts had been in vain...

On Friday, "I, Robot" grossed 1311 million, and "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" grossed 2328 million.
On Saturday, "I, Robot" grossed $1523 million, and "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" grossed $3015 million.
On Sunday, "I, Robot" grossed 1022 million, and "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" grossed 2254 million.
Undoubtedly, I, Robot failed to take the box office crown in its opening week, being firmly overshadowed by The Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales.

Decisively, Will Smith gave up the struggle. He lay quietly in bed, wanting nothing more than to be a couch potato. As for publicity? He wouldn't take another step. He accepted his fate!

Even if he runs himself ragged, it won't make a difference. "I, Robot" is destined to lose money at the box office, and it can only recoup its losses through DVD sales. Anyway, Will Smith has plenty of resources; it's just one movie, it won't affect him much.

Meanwhile, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" had been in theaters for ten days, held the top spot at the box office for two weeks, and had grossed $3.15 million in North America!
Meanwhile, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" grossed $5.58 million worldwide. This wasn't because "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales" performed much worse overseas than in North America; the lower overseas box office was due to distribution issues.

Even though "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" was touted as a simultaneous global release, it was actually released later in many regions than in North America.

It was only 2004, and the internet was still quite immature in many parts of the world. Achieving the kind of online propaganda that would be commonplace a decade or more later was unrealistic. Without adequate promotion, it would be difficult to synchronize with certain regions. Furthermore, some regions had local protectionism and censorship mechanisms…

Therefore, the overseas box office of "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," which has been in theaters for 10 days, appears to be significantly lower than its North American box office. However, once it is released overseas, its box office will pick up. After all, such a huge buzz in North America has certainly been communicated to the rest of the world.

At this moment, Depp's agent, Fat Jack, was both excited and regretful.

He was excited because "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" had achieved such a huge success, fully demonstrating Depp's box office appeal. Now, America—no, the whole world—loves Depp! So, when Depp takes on another film in the future, he can demand top-tier treatment!

What he regretted, of course, was the salary agreement he signed with the production company. At the time, Wu Yuchen insisted on giving them cash instead of a share of the box office revenue. Because of concerns about the risks of a sequel, Fat Jack compromised and agreed, even feeling that Wu Yuchen's terms were quite good: 3000 million for the second film and 4500 million for the third.

But now, wow, "Pirates of the Caribbean 2" has already grossed over $100 million in North America in just 10 days. If he had a 10% cut, that would be $30 million. Not to mention, the total North American box office is definitely more than $300 million! Add to that the $20 million base salary, and Depp should have earned at least $60 million, but now he only got half of that!

How could he not feel heartbroken and regretful? That was 3000 million!

Through the market response to "Pirates of the Caribbean 2," he has come to fully understand Depp's importance to the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series. As for the nonsense that the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series will no longer use Depp, he no longer believes a single word of it.

At this point, Fat Jack had made up his mind that if Johnny Wu and DreamWorks were to make another "Pirates of the Caribbean 4," he would not budge unless he offered Johnny Depp a salary of $1 million!

(End of this chapter)