PIRATES of the Caribbean: At World’s End has failed to set a new box office record for a three-day opening despite dominating cinemas since it opened.

The big budget film took $126.5 million (£63.2m) on its opening three days in the US – but failed to beat either the $136.6m (£68.8m) made by the previous film in the franchise, Dead Man’s Chest, or Spider-Man 3, which still holds the three-day box office sales record with $151m (£76m) in three days.

That said, it did break the four-day Memorial Day record set by X-Men 3 and has impressed chief executives at Disney, who claimed a victory.

The film, which reunites Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Orlando Bloom and Geoffrey Rush (among many others), follows the continuing fortunes of Captain Jack Sparrow as he needs rescuing from a mind-bending trap in Davy Jones’ locker and then has to save the pirate way of life.

The film is currently showing in 102 countries and opened in a record 4,362 cinemas.

And Disney bosses are delighted with the combined national and international figures which marked their biggest Friday ever.

“This is the biggest Friday our company has ever had,” confirmed Mark Zoradi, of Walt Disney Studios. “We’re delighted that word-of-mouth is clearly translating into record results at the box office.”

The film is likely to plunder even more box office gold on Monday, which forms part of the Memorial Day holiday in the US (and is traditionally a big box office hitter).

Read our review of At World’s End

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