Thursday Night Previews: Dead Men are not Lively, Baywatch Going Unseen

May 26, 2017

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales will have no trouble earning first place at the weekend box office, not after earning $5.5 million in previews last night. This would have given it number one for the night, if the numbers weren’t rolled into its Friday debut. On Stranger Tides managed $4.7 million during its midnight shows, but it was truly a midnight show, rather than starting at 7 pm like Dead Men Tell No Tales did. This is 30% higher than Alien: Covenant managed last week, but well behind the $8.2 million X-Men: Apocalypse managed this weekend last year. Dead Men Tell No Tales will need serious growth to match our previous prediction of $67 million / $82 million debut. On the positive side, it is a long weekend and that will undoubtedly help. On the negative side, its reviews are quite terrible.

Meanwhile, Baywatch earned $1.25 million during previews on Wednesday. It is really hard to judge this number, because so few films are released on Thursday, so there are not enough films to compare it with. My gut would have said it was an okay result; however, we also have early Thursday estimates and Baywatch only made $4.5 million. That’s terrible for a film that cost $60 million to make. The reviews are just 19% positive, so that’s not going to help. It did do better with CinemaScore earning a B plus, but this is right on the border between helping and hurting its legs. Our prediction of $35 million over five days was on the low end of expectations, but it feels overly optimistic now. It will likely make less over five days than most were expecting over three. This will be yet another misfire for Paramount and they can hardly afford those at the moment.

- Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Comparisons
- Baywatch Comparisons

Filed under: Midnight Previews, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Alien: Covenant, Baywatch