A week ago we looked at the highest 10-day grossers of all time, now I bring you sort of a sequel to that list, the top 10 fastest films to ever reach $300 million in North America. Now as is with most sequels, there might be more than a few similarities, after all, sequels come from a lack of original ideas, right? But you’ll notice a few changes like, for example, the complete absence of a certain web crawler that was featured twice last time around. And yes, The Hunger Games has a spot on this top 10.

10. Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011) – This took 19 days to reach $302.8 million and ended up with $352.3 million. Interestingly, Dark of the Moon just barely missed the last top 10 with $223.3 million in 10 days ($225.1 million was the number for 10th place).

9. Toy Story 3 (2010) – The 3rd entry in the Pixar animated series needed 18 days to get to $301.8 million. That’s like 3 weekends and a day, very impressive and hopefully, when Toy Story 4 comes out (and as long as it’s just as good), it will get there faster. Toy Story 3 finished with $415 million.

8. Shrek 2 (2004) – Another film that wasn’t in my last top 10, Shrek 2 made it to $300 million in 18 days but unlike Toy Story 3, it got there with $302.6 million. Box office wise, this was the highpoint of the franchise with a total of $441.2 million.

7. Star Wars: Episode 3 – Revenge of the Sith (2005) – 17 days to reach $300.3 million and it ended up with $380.2 million. While this is the fastest in the series to reach that mark, it’s only 3rd when taking into account the overall totals (if we don’t include re-releases, it’s 2nd after Phantom Menace).

6. The Hunger Games (2012) – The newest film on this list, it got here in 17 days with $302.4 million. Since every single film found here ended up with at least $350 million, it’s safe to say The Hunger Games should at the very least match that number at the end of its run.

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) – 16 days with $311.3 million and this one finished with $423.3 million. It remains by far the highest grossing film in the franchise.

4. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 (2011) – The last Harry Potter adventure needed 15 days to hit $303 million and finished with $381 million. This was only the 3rd Potter film to pass $300 million and it got there much faster than The Philosopher’s Stone (52 days) and Half-Blood Prince (77 days).

3. Avatar (2009) – The current highest grossing film of all time got to $308.8 million in 15 days and didn’t stop before $749.7 million (during its initial run). What’s more surprising than the success of this film is the fact we doubted James Cameron again, just like we did when Titanic was on the verge of release. While I don’t think Avatar 2 will match the total of the original, it should reach $300 million much faster.

2. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) – Here stands probably the most hated film on this top 10. Trashed by everyone, Revenge of the Fallen still managed to hit $305.5 million in just 14 days and was out of juice at $402.1 million, where it stopped.

1. The Dark Knight (2008) – Batman got to $313.7 million in only 10 days, absolutely trashing every gross speed record by a wide margin. The film went on to a $533.3 million total, making it (at the time) only the 2nd film to ever pass the $500 million mark. This summer The Dark Knight Rises has a lot to live up to and I’m hoping it can deliver.

A few last words are supposed to come here and since I’m all out of ideas, I’ll finish this in a very factual way while trying to maintain my serious face in the process. You see, only 37 films have made it past $300 million in North America and while The Dark Knight was the fastest (10 days, in case you skipped to the end, cheater), Forest Gump came in last place (193 days). Also for the Lord of the Rings fans out there (I’m one) that might be wondering why there’s no film from the trilogy on here, well, they were a few years ago. Now Return of the King is the highest of the franchise in 14th with 24 days to hit 300 million.

I promise I’ll do a fastest to $400 million top 10 as soon as we have a new film reach that mark. What film you think will be the next to make $400 million?

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The first 10 days of a film’s release usually cover the debut weekend and the following week up to the end of the 2nd weekend. The Hunger Games made $248.4 million in that time and while it’s a lot of money, other movies made more. I thought this would be an interesting chart to look at so today I give you the top 10 highest 10-day grossers of all time in North America, unadjusted for inflation. Interesting fact, The Hunger Games is the only non-sequel you’ll find in this top 10.

10. Spider-Man 2 (2004) $225.1 million ($373.5 million total) – Spider-Man films have always made a lot of money in a short amount of time, so obviously the 2nd one was no different. It should be noted this opened on a Wednesday, so it had a different gross pattern compared to other films found here.

9. Toy Story 3 (2010) $226.8 million ($415 million) – The 3rd and, at the time, supposedly last Toy Story, was a huge success. With its 10-day accounting for only 54.7% of the total gross, Toy Story 3 has no other equal on this chart when it comes to box office legs.

8. The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) $230.9 ($296.6 million) – The fastest selling Twilight is not the biggest. New Moon was a very frontloaded flick that in fact made 77.9% of its total in the first 10 days of release. For reference, the first Twilight made $119.7 million in 10 days, or about 62.1% of its $192.7 million total.

7. Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005) $236.9 million ($380.2 million) – Can’t have a “top something of all time” without a Star Wars flick, now can we. Take The Phantom Menace, that was the biggest 10-day grosser of all time for a good 2 and a half years. Then Revenge of the Sith held that same title for about 1 year and 2 months.

6. Spider-Man 3 (2007) $240.2 million ($336.5 million) – Notice how this one was $15 million ahead of Spider-Man 2 after 10 days yet it finished $37 million lower, ouch. This year in July Sony is rebooting the series with The Amazing Spider-Man. Expectations are high and it won’t be an easy task for that film to match previous incarnations of the friendly neighborhood spider.

5. The Hunger Games (2012) $248.4 million ($248.4 million, still running) – Oh look, something that isn’t a sequel! Really impressive for Katniss Everdeen’s first adventure and I’m looking forward to seeing Catching Fire or the two part Mockingjay crack this top 10 in the future.

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006) $258.3 million ($423.3 million) – Arghhh, there be pirates here matey, one is Jack Sparrow, nay, Captain Jack Sparrow! The 2003 origin was one of the most popular films of that year, both with audiences and critics, so a sequel was expected to perform well. Funny that On Stranger Tides made less in its entire run than Dead Man’s Chest made in just 10 days. Those Pirates aren’t as popular as they used to be.

3. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) $269 million ($402.1 million) – Like Pirates, this came after a very successful first entry. But, while Dead Man’s Chest isn’t exactly a favorite among Pirate fans, although still decent, Revenge of the Fallen is considered the black sheep of the Transformers series.

2. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011) $273.5 million ($381 million) – The final chapter in the most popular movie franchise of all time, Deathly Hallows Part 2, for the most part, did not disappoint. Interesting enough, at one point Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) was the biggest 10-day grosser of all time, for about 6 months. That’s one thing the final Potter could not achieve.

1. The Dark Knight (2008) $313.7 million ($533.3 million) – If you didn’t see this one coming, then you are a terrible liar. With The Dark Knight Rises just 3 and a half months away, I can’t wait to see where that will fall into this top 10. My best bet is at the very least 4th with a chance of 1st.

With movies making more money and faster than ever before, these kinds of charts change all the time so over the years the title of highest 10-day grosser of all time went to films that aren’t here anymore. In order we’ve had Jurassic Park (1993) with 120.1 million ($357 million), then stolen by Independence Day (1996) with $124.2 million ($306.1 million) and after that The Lost World: Jurassic park (1997) with $138.9 million ($229 million).

If you have any favorites on this list, maybe even contributed to their gross by purchasing a ticket, which one was it?

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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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