Hollywood returned to its buccaneering ways last year as box office champ "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" helped overall ticket sales recover from 2005's downturn. As the final numbers are tallied, last year's total national box office appears headed to an estimated $9.46 billion, up nearly 5% from $8.99 billion in 2005. 2006 becomes the fourth-best year on record. The record holder is 2004 with $9.54 billion, followed by 2002 with $9.52 billion and 2003 with $9.49 billion.

The number of tickets sold is expected to total about 1.44 billion, up nearly 3% from 2005’s 1.4 billion. The modern-day record was set in 2002 with 1.64 billion. (Admissions were higher in the 1940s and early 1950s before the spread of TV.)

With $423.3 million in its domestic coffers, “Dead Man’s Chest” proved more popular than the first film in the trilogy, 2003’s “Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl,” which pulled in $305.4 million. The sequel also outgrossed 2005’s top film, “Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith,” which collected $380.3 million.

Even before the latest “Pirates” set sail on the weekend of July 7, last year’s box office tally had begun to improve on the downbeat returns of 2005 when alarmists were predicting that moviegoers were abandoning theaters en masse.

With megaplexes working overtime to accommodate the crowds that thronged to “Dead Man’s Chest” — which established new one-day, opening-day and opening-weekend records — a box office revival was assured.

Buena Vista Pictures, the distribution arm of the Walt Disney Co., grabbed the top two spots with its summer doubleheader of “Dead Man’s Chest” and Pixar Animation Studios’ “Cars,” the top animated film in a year crowded with cartoons, which steered its way to $244.1 million.

Sony Pictures, the market-share leader for 2006, dominated the top 25 with seven titles, led by the theological thriller “The Da Vinci Code,” with $217.5 million. 20th Century Fox followed with five entries, including the third-best-grossing domestic film of the year, “X-Men: The Last Stand,” the comic book adaptation that grabbed $234.4 million.

PG-13 films proliferated, with 12 of the top 25 bearing that rating. PG-rated movies accounted for seven. While only two G-rated movies cracked the top 25, there were four R-rated films, led by the rude and rowdy “Borat,” in 14th place with a gross-to-date of $125.8 million.

Familiarity bred success in 2006. Six of the top 25 movies were sequels, and three movies — “Superman Returns” ($200.1 million), “Casino Royale” ($154.9 million) and “The Pink Panther” ($82.2 million) — relaunched long-running series.

But there still was room for originality and surprise. With “Borat,” high-wire performance artist Sacha Baron Cohen moved from cable TV cult status to movie star virtually overnight. Meryl Streep’s commandingly sly performance in “The Devil Wears Prada” helped that comedy break out of the women’s film ghetto and connect with a broad-based audience to the tune of $124.7 million. And trading in the wiseguys of New York for the Southies of Boston, Martin Scorsese enjoyed the biggest hit of his career with “The Departed,” which has taken in more than $120 million to date.

Source: Reuters