The first "Pirates of the Caribbean" started out relatively quiet but grew into the second biggest financial success of 2003, not to mention a hit with critics and audiences. Reviews for the sequel have been decidedly more mixed, and yet many were expecting the box-office to be big, even if it's almost certain to be far more front-loaded this time.

Just how big though has shocked the industry with "Dead Man's Chest" pulling in a whopping $132 million dollars, easily landing the title of the biggest opening weekend for a movie in history. Its total stands well above next nearest rivals "Spider-Man ($114.8M) and "Star Wars: Episode III" ($108.4M), whilst its per theatre taking of $31,944 is also six times that of its nearest rival in the top ten. The film seems likely to be the first title of the year to break the $300 million mark.

The rest of the top ten saw little change, but being the post-July 4th weekend they all sunk accordingly. "Cars" and "An Inconvenient Truth" held the best with falls of 29% and 31% respectively. Comic book films "Superman Returns" and "X-Men: The Last Stand" fared the worst and fell 58.4% and 60.4% respectively. "X-Men" has pretty much wrapped up its theatrical run, looking to end with around a $235-240 million domestic haul. "Superman" currently stands at just over $140 million and whilst there's little in the way of competition for the rest of the Summer, the moderately steep drop seems to indicate it won't reach X3's total haul domestically.

Surprise hit "The Devil Wears Prada" cooled down 43% in its second outing, still a big winner for Fox but probably won't break the $100 million total mark that some speculated it might last week. Adam Sandler comedy "Click" broke that barrier this weekend and now totals $105 million, yet another hit for the actor. The only other newcomer this week was Keanu Reeves sci-fi thriller "A Scanner Darkly" on a limited release front. On 17 screens the film scored an impressive $23,882 average. "Strangers with Candy" also did well in small release with $11,238 per screen from 21 playdates.