'Pirates' again plunders overseas box office

LOS ANGELES: "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" continues to take no prisoners in its siege of the overseas box office, topping the chart this past weekend with an impressive $69.4 million in about 50 territories. With a total gross close to $800 million worldwide, the overall franchise is now sailing toward $3.5 billion in global receipts.

In second place, "The Hangover Part II" continues to drink in heavy amounts of international cash, tossing back $63.8 million in its second weekend of release in more than 40 territories, and with a worldwide tab so far of more than $347 million.

Debuting internationally in third place with $61 million in about 40 territories was "X-Men: First Class." The fifth installment of the successful series of films has earned over $130 million worldwide and demonstrates the appeal of super heroes both overseas as well as in North America.

"Kung Fu Panda 2" had a solid fourth place international showing in its second weekend, with $38.4 million in around 20 territories and a family-driven global total of more than $262 million.

Here are the rest of the top 20 movies at international theaters last weekend, followed by their international gross for the weekend (excluding North America), number of theater locations, number of territories, worldwide gross to date (including North America), and number of weeks in release as compiled Wednesday by Rentrak Theatrical and provided by Hollywood.com:

5. "Fast Five," $6,242,537, 5,127 locations, 45 territories, $551,191,301, seven weeks.
6. "Rio," $3,296,936, 3,159 locations, 37 territories, $460,604,351, nine weeks.
7. "Sunny," $2,693,171, locations unavailable, one territory, $28,186,415, five weeks.
8. "The Tree of Life," $2,576,664, 525 locations, 10 territories, $11,855,760, four weeks.
9. "Midnight in Paris," $2,554,008, 921 locations, three territories, $24,852,778, four weeks.
10. "Paradise Kiss," $2,543,730, 303 locations, one territory, $2,543,730, one week.
11. "Princess Toyotomi," $2,290,445, locations unavailable, one territory, $9,337,251, two weeks.
12. "Drucker in the Dug-Out," $2,251,959, locations unavailable, one territory, $2,251,959, one week.
13. "Monsieur Papa," $1,835,071, 325 locations, three territories, $2,092,141, one week.
14. "Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Rodrick Rules," $1,810,964, 957 locations, 6 territories, $64,372,840, 11 weeks.
15. "Water For Elephants," $1,741,932, 1,816 locations, three territories, $108,110,064, eight weeks.
16. "Source Code," $1,612,580, 957 locations, 20 territories, $110,091,830, 10 weeks.
17. "Black Swan," $1,489,334, 21 locations, eight territories, $318,993,096, 20 weeks.
18. "The Rabbi's Cat," $1,412,336, 257 locations, three territories, $1,630,099, one week.
19. "Paul," $1,354,869, 187 locations, 12 territories, $90,940,029, 11 weeks.
20. "The Lincoln Lawyer," $1,350,677, 888 locations, 17 territories, $77,198,462, 12 weeks.

‘Pirates 4’ still top pick at box office

LOS ANGELES: The fourth "Pirates of the Caribbean" movie ruled the foreign box office for a second weekend, fending off strong debuts by the "Hangover" and "Kung Fu Panda" sequels.

"Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides," playing everywhere overseas, captured $123 million during the weekend, raising its total to $471 million -- more than three times its domestic gross ($153 million).

"The Hangover, Part II" pulled in $59 million from 40 markets. Warner Bros. said the opening is three times higher than the comparable opening gross of the original 2009 hit in the same markets.

The comedy drew huge numbers from its No. 1 U.K. bow ($16.4 million), while Australia chipped in $11.6 million and France $5.8 million. Germany and Russia will open this week.

"Kung Fu Panda 2" in 3D followed closely with $57 million from just 11 markets, mostly in Asia.

The sequel to 2008's "Kung Fu Panda" finished in the top spot in nine markets, with China ($18.5 million), Russia ($15 million) and South Korea ($13 million) leading the list.

This week will see "Kung Fu Panda 2" adding 11 markets as it rolls out gradually over the summer months to capitalize on school holidays.

No. 4 on the weekend was "Fast Five," which grossed $13.3 million in 61 territories, pushing the foreign total for the turbo-charged street-racing sequel to $346 million.

New `Pirates' sails old familiar, seas

At two hours and 16 minutes, "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" — the fourth film in the ridiculously successful Disney franchise — is the shortest in the series. But it still feels overlong and overstuffed: needlessly convoluted yet, at the same time, phoned-in.

And the fact that this one's in 3-D — because everything's in 3-D, silly thing — does nothing to liven up the action. Those three-dimensional digital effects mainly consist of various swords and snakes and such being flung at our faces.

Boo! Did you jump?

That's not to say this summer behemoth doesn't have its thrilling moments. Rob Marshall ("Chicago," "Nine") takes over for Gore Verbinski, who directed the first three "Pirates" movies, and his knack for choreography comes shining through in individual set pieces. An early chase sequence, in which Johnny Depp as the randy Capt. Jack Sparrow escapes the clutches of the puffy, bloviating King George II (Richard Griffiths), is expertly staged. Jack swings from chandeliers and hangs from ropes, straddles moving carriages and steers a cart full of flaming coal, and we're right there alongside him every breathless step of the way.

Similarly, a nighttime attack by mermaids — beautiful, seductive, deadly mermaids with razor-sharp teeth — provides a jolt. Because what's hotter than mermaids, except maybe naughty vampire mermaids? And the first time Jack crosses paths (and swords) with his old flame Angelica, played by a spirited Penelope Cruz, it's in a lengthy, fluid battle across beams and atop barrels. (Oddly, Cruz and Depp, who co-starred together in 2001's "Blow," don't have a whole lot of chemistry once they have to actually stop and talk to each other.)

It's everything that happens in between, all the chatter and the exposition, that make the latest "Pirates" such a repetitive bore.

Depp's performance, which seemed like such a free, goofy, inspired bit of work when the first film came out back in 2003, now feels so dialed-down and obvious, it's as if he could do it in his sleep. With the (unexplained) absence of Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley this time around, Depp's Sparrow is now front and center — he's almost the voice of reason — rather than the bejeweled and eyelinered clown riffing in the corner, commenting in the action.

As for the plot — not that it matters, really — this time the script from Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio centers on a search for the fabled Fountain of Youth. Jack has no ship anymore, so when Angelica kidnaps him and drags him aboard the Queen Anne's Revenge, the ship belonging to the fearsome Blackbeard (a constrained Ian McShane), he's stuck going along for the ride.

Blackbeard seeks the fountain after receiving a prophecy that he's going to die in two weeks. But the Spanish are after it, too. And so are the English, led by Jack's deceitful old nemesis Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).

Did we mention that there are zombie pirates aboard Blackbeard's ship? The fact that they're zombies makes no sense at all — I mean, come on, wouldn't they be trying to eat the brains of the living pirates at every opportunity? — and feels like yet another attempt to inject arbitrary weirdness in the place of genuine inspiration.

Also on board is a hunky man of faith with just the right amount of facial scruff named Philip (Sam Claflin), who falls for one of the mermaids (Astrid Berges-Frisbey), who's been taken prisoner because her tears are required to activate the Fountain of Youth waters. (Don't ask.) Ostensibly, this relationship is intended to replace the young-people-in-love subplot that Bloom and Knightley provided, but it's so full of banal angst, it feels a little too much like something you'd see in the "Twilight" series.