Today, Friday July 7, the much anticipated “Pirate of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest” will hit the theaters. All the other studios have backed off any other big opening this weekend, afraid to challenge the mighty Captain Jack Sparrow and his fellow Pirates. It is probably a wise choice. The buzz online is loud and clear: this is going to be THE big summer flick. The movie is already climbing quickly in the number of Yahoo searches on Movies and Actors.

Disney is flexing its biggest marketing muscles in a rare multiplex-mania, taking no chances, packing in the crowds in record high 4,000 opening theaters dedicated to Johnny Depp wearing eye-liner.

The first Pirates of the Caribbean opened on a Wednesday and grossed $46.6 million. It is no surprise that Disney expects a bigger opening weekend gross for the sequel, although it opens on a Friday. The question is how big? Bigger than Superman’s $84.6 million last weekend (5 days)? Maybe. In fact, it might even be one of the largest opening weekend grosses in Box Office History.

The big question is if it will break the $100 million mark? Only five movies have done that during its opening weekend: The first and still the record holder is 2002’s Spider-Man, with $114.8M from 3,615 theaters, the others are Shrek 2 with $108M with a Wednesday start, Star Wars Episode III with $108.4M after a Thursday start, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with $102.3M, and finally X-Men: The Last Stand with $102.8M. The figures are all from Box Office Guru.

It is clear that Pirates appeal to kids of all ages and action seeking young men that worship everything super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer puts his seal on. What might make the difference in box office success here is that the Pirates have something neither of the top grossing movies above have that will most certainly pack in the female audience: The killing Hollywood-hunk-combo of Orlando Bloom and Johnny Depp - even if the latter is wearing eye-liner.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/

http://disney.go.com/disneypictures/pirates/