Box office finally saved, but by pirates
Welcome back the the Weekend Recap, your exclusive look at the stock market and the box office. Don't worry, we won't tell anyone that you actually read the stock report. After all, it's far more casual to mention the box office in a conversation than the Nasdaq. The business angle, though, captivates you in a way that nothing else has. While you're very curious to see how many dollars Jack Sparrow scurried away over the weekend, you want to know more about the stock market. And here we are, ready to supply your fix, right now.
The big news this week in the world of business was the June jobs report. According to the Labor department, about 121,000 nonfarm payroll jobs were created in June, well below the forecasted 185,000. Outside of government hiring, June job creation rose by 90,000, and private hiring was below 100,000. On the flip side, if you do have a job you're wages have probably increased. In addition, June's unemployment rate was 4.6%, keeping up a 7-month streak of employment below 5%. (Ha, I said the word "streak" in a post.)
The stock markets closed the week on a mixed note, with the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq loosing a noticable amount for the trading week, while the S&P 500 gained about thirteen points.
By now, everybody and their mother has heard that Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest had the best-selling opening weekend of all-time, bringing in an estimated $132 million in ticket sales. However, there is something else unique that transpired over the past couple days. Every film on the top ten chart last week moved down one spot each. Normally, you'd have a film at #4 move down to #7, while the #9 film drops off the chart, and so forth. But not this week. This weekend, every single film moved down exactly one spot. To me, that is just as remarkable as the biggest opening in Hollywood history. (Which means that I find just about everything to be "remarkable," sadly.)
The first installment in the Pirates series, The Curse of the Black Pearl, took in $46.6 million - nearly a third of Dead Man's Chest's intake. The previous record-holder for the best-grossing weekend was 2002's Spider-Man, which took in a suprising $114.8 million. On Friday, Dead Man's Chest took in $55.5 million, beating the previous single-day record of $50 million set by Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. With an addition $44.7 million on Saturday, the sequel also became the first movie to ever top $100 million in just two days.
After a few weeks of testing, we've decided to discontinue the On the Twin Institutes portion of the Weekend Recap. As much fun as it was to negate the need to scroll your mouse down the homepage was, we figured it would be a better use of our time if we, say, took a nap instead. Although, falling to sleep is hardly difficult. Just read The Weekend Recap word-for-word, and you'll be well on your way to nighty-night land, where Jack Sparrow and Fed chairman Ben Bernanke can conspire a way to get you into the movie theaters and create jobs, preferably of the swashbuckling variety.
Well folks, it's that time of the week again. It's not that we didn't enjoy our time together, it's just time for you to go away. Come back in a few days for The Weekend Preview, when we'll laugh at any movie that thinks it can come even close to topping Dead Man's Chest!
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