Joel Siegel's the Morning After

Sony and Disney are battling over who has the bigger movie.

ByABC News
May 31, 2007, 10:32 AM

May 31, 2007 — -- This from the movie maven's indispensable daily e-mail digest of TV and movie news, Studio Briefing: "Sony, Disney in Six-Day War."

Sony, which boasted early in the month that "Spider-Man 3" set a slew of box-office records, angrily lashed out at the Walt Disney Co. Tuesday over its claim that "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End " has the distinction of having "the biggest [global] opening in movie history" over its first six days in release. A Sony spokesman complained that "Pirates" actually opened in Italy and France on Tuesday, adding a seventh day to its gross.

"We had previews that generated $1.4 million," Disney responded. "And in keeping with industry practice, we rolled it into the opening day."

Sony said that if it included its own seventh day for "Spider-Man 3," it would hold the worldwide box-office crown.

The numbers: $401 million at the worldwide box office for "Pirates 3." $382 million for "Spidey 3."

It gets very complicated adding preview days (before the official opening date) for "Pirates" in Italy and France and in the U.S. which raises its domestic total. "Spidey" still holds the Memorial Day record.

Does any of that make any difference? No!

"Pirates 3" is doing much better overseas than it is in the U.S. and Canada.My theory that there is an inverse ratio between the number of people in theaudience who speak English and the box office success of a Hollywood blockbuster.

And if "Pirates" had run an appropriate two hours instead of a nearly three-hour running time that makes you feel shipwrecked, even Aunt May would have admitted Pirates No. Three was actually No. One.

Reuters, once the most respected news service in the world, filed a story headlined, "Early summer movies underperform at box office."

There have been stories of Reuters outsourcing its staffs to Asia. But even in Asia that's not true. "Spidey," "Shrek" and "Pirates 3" are gargantuan hits. Hugely expensive to make, they are all on track make big profits.