It took three movies for Transformers to finally reach the international box office it was always destined to have. Transformers: Dark of the Moon opened to a whopping $219 million, second highest of the year (Pirates 4 scored $260 million) and if we go by worldwide numbers then Optimus Prime and his gang hauled an even more impressive $382.4 million, second only to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with $394 million.

With such fantastic numbers, Transformers: Dark of the Moon has a good chance at becoming the 2nd movie to reach $1 billion after Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides got there on Saturday. Back in 2007 Transformers grossed 390.4 million internationally and $709.7 million worldwide while in 2009 Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen made $434.1 million internationally and $836.2 million worldwide. As you can clearly see, there wasn’t much in the way of international growth for the series between part 1 and 2 but for part 3 things are looking radically different. With Japan and China still to come later this month, Transformers: Dark of the Moon is on track for over $600 million internationally, even with higher 3D tickets, a 50% growth in just 2 years is damn impressive. So far the autobots have grossed $454 million worldwide in just a week.

A very distant 2nd place was Cars 2 with $22.1 million (1st place had $219 million) and so far this made $82.2 million. With a lot more markets set to open the flick in the coming months, Cars 2 is performing internationally a lot better then it is in North America.

Another big hit around the world, Kung Fu Panda 2, added $20 million for a new international total of $377.6 million and $536.8 million worldwide. It now seems like this will stop just shy of $600 million, so not that far from the final gross of Kung Fu Panda, $631.7 million.

4th place belongs to The Hangover Part II with $9.6 million for over $300 million around the world and $548.9 million if we include North America.

Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides was 5th and thanks to $7.7 million over the weekend, it is now at $774.7 million internationally and $1,009.2 million worldwide, as in over 1 billion. This is now the 3rd Johnny Depp movie to reach that milestone and his 4th one in the worldwide top 10, something very few actors managed to ever achieve (Orlando Bloom with two Pirates and two Lord of the Rings flicks in 2007 and Harrison Ford way back in the 80′s with three Star Wars and at least two Indian Jones come to mind).

Bridesmaids and Bad Teacher were 6th and 7th with $7.2 million each while an Delhi Belly, a Bollywood flick, was 8th with an impressive $7.1 million.

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After a first place debut in North America, Cars 2 managed to grab the same spot around the world. Now this would not be in any way surprising considering how huge the Cars franchise has become in the past 5 years, but what really stands out is this only came out in 18 markets and still grossed enough to beat the likes of Kung Fu Panda 2, the former leader.

Cars 2 took in $42.9 million last weekend and according to Disney, it was up by 127% compared to Cars in the same markets. Considering that one made $217.9 million internationally, it’s safe to assume that Cars 2 will finish north of $400 million internationally for what should look like around $650-700 million worldwide. Still, there’s a long way to go before it can reach those heights and right now Cars 2 has only $123 million worldwide.

Second place went to Kung Fu Panda 2 with $36.7 million from 56 markets for a new total of $343.4 million internationally and $497.7 million worldwide. Back in 2008 Kung Fu Panda made $416.3 million internationally and $631.7 million worldwide. This one will probably stop around $600-$630 million worldwide.

The Hangover Part II made $16.5 million for $283.3 million internationally and a record $528.1 million worldwide making it by far the most successful R-rated comedy around the world.

Inevitably, we come to Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides again, this time with $13.5 million for $756.1 million internationally and that means, well, I will let the numbers speak:

1. Avatar 2,021.8 million
2. Titanic 1,242.4  million
3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides 756.1   million

Worldwide is at $986.6 million and this weekend it should break the 1 billion mark becoming the 8th movie to do so. When all is said and done, Pirates 4 should be at $1,020-1,040 million either becoming 6th or 7th in history (not adjusted for inflation).

X-Men: First Class took in $13 million for $186.6 million and $321.2 worldwide. It has passed X-Men ($296.3 million) but it will fall just short of X-Men Origins: Wolverine ($373 million) and not even close to X2 ($407.7 million) and X-Men: The Last Stand ($459.3 million).

Bad Teacher was 6th with a solid $12.4 million from 24 markets and now holds $18.3 million internationally for a worldwide total of $57.8 million.

Time for some interesting facts about a movie that came out 2 months ago yet it’s still doing business. Did you guys know that Fast Five has made so far about as much as the entire worldwide grosses of the first three Fast and Furious movies combined? $596.8 million vs $601.9 and it isn’t out of the question that it could ultimately pass that total with a bit of help. Universal, mental note, help Fast Five hit that mark.

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Just yesterday we talked about the possibility of a fourth Pirates film and the possible storyline. Now we have word from the director himself, Gore Verbinski.

Holding court as the keynote speaker at the video game-centric DICE Summit in Las Vegas, the director told the audience that his biggest problem with “At World’s End” was that it had just too many darn characters.

If Gore does end up directing the next pirates film, then that problem will probably not resurface. Will and Elizabeth will probably not return as we said yesterday, and the movie will focus on Jack Sparrow and Barbossa searching for the ‘Fountain Of Youth’. But Gore apparently hasn’t heard anything.

“Show me the script,” he said. “I look forward to reading the script for ‘Pirates 4.’”

Verbinski knows, of course, that because of the ongoing writers strike, such a task would be impossible. But, then, past “Pirates” movies have already been green-lit, and even given a concrete release date, without a final screenplay.

Try it again and you’ll lose Verbinski, the director insisted.

“The process of having release dates and no script is not something I’m dying to go through again. I would have to pull the gun out of my mouth [first],” he said. “The reason I did 2 and 3, honestly, was because I still thought there was something to do there. I don’t want to be involved in, you know, ‘Rocky 9.’ ”

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I can remember reading something similar to this before, but I will talk about it anyway as it has come from the Disney know it all, Jim Hill

Now given that Bruckheimer & Disney do eventually hope to put a “Pirates 4″ into production (A film that — I hear — would toss the Elizabeth & Will characters over the side in favor of doing a bawdy buddy picture which would star Jack Sparrow & Barbossa. Where both captains of the Black Pearl would initially be competing for the exact same prize. But eventually all the double crossing would have to stop as these two rivals were then forced to join forces in order to defeat some supernatural terror)

This seems the logical way to go as Keira Knightly has said she was done with the pirate world, Orlando Bloom seems to have taken a break from big budget movies by doing some stage work and a few people complained about the love story in the third film. So maybe a film filled with fun pirate action will be a breathe of fresh, or should I say sea, air.

While watching At Worlds End I grew to like Barbossa more and more. I hadn’t seen Geoffrey Rush in anything before the first Pirate movie, so I didn’t see him as an actor, I saw him as Barbossa. He was great in the role and to see him on screen again would be treat. Johnny Depp performs as always and is the natural entertainer, putting a possible fourth movie in the ‘eagerly awaiting’ category. Of course practically nothing is official or confirmed as of yet, only ideas being thrown around. The end of the last movie saw Jack Sparrow on the search for the Fountain Of Youth, which could be a rather cool storyline. However, apparently the third National Treasure movie may focus on the same topic, which is rather weird. Although the writers of Book Of Secrets just happen to have written the Pirates trilogy, so we can conclude that Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio have a fetish for fountains.

What are your thoughts on a possibly fourth outing?

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ComingSoon have posted a list of the seven films that remain in contention for the Achievement in Visual Effects for the 80th Academy Awards. On Wednesday, January 16, members of the Academy’s Visual Effects Branch will watch a 15 minute excerpt from each film, and then nominate three who will go forward for the final consideration. Here they are:

The Golden Compass

Transformers

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End

The Bourne Ultimatum

Evan Almighty

300

I Am Legend

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With the DVD for Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End being released, there was bound to be someone talking about something regarding Jack Sparrow’s future. And who else better than director Gore Verbinski who spoke to MovieWeb.

Are you planning on doing a 4th part?

Gore Verbinski: I think the trilogy is now complete. All of the stories set in motion by the first film have been resolved. If there ever were another Pirates of the Caribbean film, I would start fresh and focus on the further adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow.

There were rumours of this when Pirates 3 was released. Gore finished off the trilogy with Jack Sparrow and Barbossa hunting down ‘The Fountain Of Youth’ so that will probably be the focus of the next film, if anything is made at all. Disney could easily make another film, without Miss Knightly or Mr Bloom, and still make the kind of money the trilogy did. All they need is Jack Sparrow, and Barbossa…with his crew…and the monkey…and parrot.

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