"Pirates 3" beats "Spiderman 3" in opening week sales

The opening week sales of Hollywood blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" have surpassed that of "Spiderman 3" despite protests from some Chinese filmgoers that censorship of Chow Yun-Fat's role had made the plot difficult to follow.

The opening week sales of Hollywood blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End" have surpassed that of "Spiderman 3" despite protests from some Chinese filmgoers that censorship of Chow Yun-Fat's role had made the plot difficult to follow.

The film reaped nearly 80 million yuan (10.4 million US dollars) on the Chinese mainland in its first week since its release on June 12, 10 million yuan more than "Spiderman 3" amassed in its first week.

"The box office opens at 10 a.m. but people were queuing up for tickets as early as nine," said a manager surnamed Yuan at a cinema in Beijing.

"We have had to lay on extra showings every day to satisfy the demand," said another manager surnamed Yu from another cinema, "the situation is likely to continue until the end of this weekend."

Chinese movie star Chow Yun-Fat's role has been slashed in half by censors in China for vilifying and defacing the Chinese and insulting Singapore.

The film shows only about 10 minutes of Chow's scenes while in the Hollywood version his scenes take up about 20 minutes of the film.

Although the role of Chow has been slashed, many cinema goers were not deterred.

"It was interesting to see Chow's ferocious looking appearance among a group of pirates," said a fan surnamed Jiao, "Despite the cuts, I am still excited about his performance in a Hollywood-made movie."

Gao Jun, a member of staff with Beijing's New Film Association, said "According to the current situation, there is no doubt the film's box office revenue will exceed 100 million yuan."

As the third installment in the popular Disney series, "Pirates 3" starring Johnny Depp took in a record 1.3 million U.S dollars on its opening day in China.

And it is reportedly the fastest film ever to take 500 million dollars at the global box office.

The popularity of "Pirates 3" has also driven up sales of the DVD of "Pirates 2", which was not released in cinemas on the mainland.

"Spiderman 3", released on May 2 on China's mainland, has raked in more than 100 million yuan (12.99 million U.S. dollars), topping China's domestic movie box office so far this year.

Source: Xinhua