'Pirates' plunders 57 million dollar in North America

LOS ANGELES, May 27 (Reuters) ''Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End,'' the third film in Walt Disney Co.'s lucrative adventure franchise, sold an estimated 57 million dollar of tickets in its first two days of release across North America, the company said.

The tally includes 14 million dollar from Thursday evening previews that took place before the film's official release the next day. The balance of 43 million dollar includes sales of 3 million dollar from midnight screenings.

Disney declined to forecast sales for the weekend, which will be boosted by the U.S. Memorial Day holiday tomorrow.

The film, starring Johnny Depp as the woozy pirate Captain Jack Sparrow, has also also earned 85.5 million dollar from 102 international markets, led by Britain, France, Germany, Japan and South Korea, Disney said.

''Pirates'' marks the first Disney film to be released ''day-and-date'' around the world, and so comparisons with the performances of the first two films in the series are difficult.

The first sequel, ''Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest,'' for example, was rolled out internationally over an eight-week period last year following the soccer World Cup, Disney said.

The only markets the new film is not yet playing in are India, Lebanon and China.

''Pirates'' is playing in a record 4,362 theaters across the United States and Canada, about 110 more than Sony Corp's ''Spider-Man 3,'' which set an opening-weekend record of 151 million dollar earlier this month. That film was also released worldwide over the course of a few days.

Reigning North American champion ''Shrek the Third'' also entered the record books after debuting last weekend with 122 million dollar -- the best opening by an animated film. It was produced by DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. and released by Viacom Inc.'s Paramount Pictures.

REUTERS DKS PM423