As expected, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (the fourth movie in a seemingly neverending franchise) scored the top box office position with an estimated $90.1 million in ticket sales. However, some people would have us believe that these domestic results are at least slightly unimpressive compared to 2007’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End which achieved a $114 million opening weekend. Not only did At World’s End pull in $24 million more, but it did so with lower ticket prices and without the help of IMAX showings or 3-D surcharges either. Still and even if Americans are tiring of Disney pirates and getting ripped off for 3-D showings, On Stranger Tides has scored the highest domestic opening of the year, and the international grosses shall be its salvation, according to Deadline:

A Disney exec told me Friday that IMAX grosses were “very solid” for the film, but Saturday morning he admitted that 3D had turned “very soft” in the U.S. and Canada. Maybe people are sick of wearing those dumb glasses. That translated into a $90.1M weekend domestic — a far cry from the $100M weekend which Disney was expecting or the $114M which Pirates 3 did in 2007 for the first 3 days of the Memorial long weekend. I hear Pirates 4 cost in the neighborhood of $250 million to make and another $170M to market worldwide. But a derivative and lackluster U.S. promotional campaign didn’t help. (Recruited to help newbie MT Carney was vet Val Van Galder, a mistake.) Then again, reviews for Rob Marshall’s direction ranged from bad to mediocre after fans were already disappointed with the threequel from Gore Verbinski (who helmed the Pirates trilogy). However, CinemaScore was a B+, indicating moviegoers liked #4. Or maybe just those mermaid scenes.

For over 2,000 midnight locations, Pirates 4 opened to a hefty $4.7M, beating the previous midnights for Disney’s own Alice In Wonderland and well as new Summer 2011 blockbusters Fast Five and Thor. Disney released On Stranger Tides into 4,155 theaters in the U.S. and Canada, of which 2,747 are 3D locations including 256 IMAX (an IMAX domestic record). But interestingly, a survey by big online movie ticketseller Fandango found 61% of more than 2,000 ticketbuyers picked Johnny Depp’s new love interest Penelope Cruz as primary reason to attend, while only 29% selected 3D as a main factor. It won’t help that the new installment will have to contend with Hangover Part 2 and Kung Fu Panda 2 this coming Memorial weekend so rival studios think Pirates 4 will have a tough road to reach the %300M domestic of all three prior films.

That may not matter because Disney is confident it can pass the $670M of Pirates 3 now that Pirates 4 scored the best 5-day international opening of the franchise and the 4th biggest global cume. As a Disney exec acknowledged to me, “It’s a summer popcorn four-quadrant pic and U.S. audiences know what they’re getting. But internationally, there’s no denying it’s more important than ever and Johnny’s global appeal will definitely help us as well as the addition of Penelope in Europe (and the rest of world) certainly won’t hurt.”

[From Deadline]

So certainly, On Stranger Tides didn’t perform nearly as spectacularly on the domestic front as its most recent predecessor, but it still fared quite well, especially on the international realm, which the movie has scored the fourth largest global opening weekend of all time (behind the third largest, At World’s End, naturally). Indeed, Johnny Depp is one of the largest globally recognizable movie stars in the world, and Penelope Cruz’s presence certainly didn’t hurt the international markets either.

In second place, Bridesmaids pulled in $21.1 million to beat Thor, whose mighty abs may have remained victorious last week but grew fatigued in their third week out. Certainly, Bridemaids strong hold was facilitated by the movie’s really positive word of mouth, which accounts for the very low dropoff (a mere 20%) between the first and second weekend. Methinks there’ll be a sequel on the way in no time at all.

In third place, Thor added another $15.5 million to its total; for fourth position, Fast Five scored another $10.6 million; and Rio continued to flap its wings in fifth place with a $4.7 weekend. Go away, birds!

Movie stills courtesy of AllMoviePhoto