One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Requiem For A Box-Office Weekend: Memorial Day Ticket Sales Lowest In 18 Years
(Photo via Baywatch/Instagram)
It was a rough holiday weekend for terrible ocean-themed movies. Memorial Day weekend traditionally nets major ticket sales, but this past weekend saw the lowest box-office numbers since 1999. The fifth installment of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, opened in theaters over the weekend to disappointing results, with Monday projections estimating a paltry $76.6 million. (That might sound like a windfall, but it's actually the second-lowest debut for a Pirates film, coming in just after the first film in the series, 2003's The Curse of the Black Pearl.)
In news that will come as a major shock to...well, nobody, The Rock's Baywatch adaptation isn't doing great at the box office, either. The critically not-so-acclaimed film, which currently holds a 19% rating on RottenTomatoes, has earned just over $27 million in ticket sales. Baywatch cost $69 million to produce, Entertainment Weekly reports, so the film will need to score some pretty major attention from foreign audiences; here's hoping the international film community is more enthusiastic than the U.S. about watching Zac Efron run on a beach in slow motion.
It's hard to determine precisely what led to this Memorial Day weekend's box-office slump. Maybe more people opted to stay home and catch up on Master of None instead of filling multiplex seats; maybe Baywatch and the fifth Pirates film just don't have what it takes to convince audiences to hand over $14.50 plus the price of popcorn. We'll surely be able to evaluate next Memorial Day, when an inevitable sixth Pirates installment and Baywatch 2: Back To The Beach are battling it out in theaters once again—because when have dismal reviews and weak ticket sales ever stopped Hollywood from making a sequel?
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
