Arrggh! Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow and the rest of his crew returned this weekend to swash buckle their way through the theaters and mightily take command of the box office movie earnings. While it didn’t reach the levels of Pirates of the Caribbean 2 or the new record holder, Spider-Man 3, it still pulled in a healthy set of gold. Geez, that was a lot of pirate talk, no more, I promise. Considering how well Pirates did this weekend it was surprising to see how well the #2 movie, Shrek the Third, did as well. After the #2 spot the gap widens a little more with Spider-Man 3 still managing to reach into the double digit millions to break the $300 million cumulative gross mark. The second new release for this weekend, Bug starring Ashley Judd, snuck into the #4 spot but still had a rather sad debut and probably didn’t earn enough to pay off the catering bill for that production.

If these movies weren’t quite your thing you’ll have a big set of movies coming along next weekend, five or more depending on how big your city is (limited releases). I’m still going to expect Pirates 3 to hold on to the #1 next weekend, but it’ll be nice to have some options again instead of “next sequel installment”. Enough about next week, let’s take a look at the earnings from this weekend.

Box office earnings for movies this weekend, May 25 - May 27, 2007:

1. “Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World’s End” $112.5 million
2. “Shrek the Third” $51 million
3. “Spider-Man 3″ $13.7 million
4. “Bug” $3.2 million
5. “Waitress” $2.8 million
6. “28 Weeks Later” $2.4 million
7. “Georgia Rule” $1.8 million
8. “Disturbia” $1.7 million
9. “Fracture” $2.9 million
10. “Wild Hogs” $1 million