22 h, may 28, 2017 y - PIRATES 5 Johnny Depp BOX OFFICE Pirates of the Caribbean Sequel Tops Box Office

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LOS ANGELES — “Thar be squalls ahead.”

An old salt offers that warning as riders set sail on Pirates of the Caribbean, the classic Disney theme park ride, and Walt Disney Studios knew the same admonishment held true for a fifth movie based on it: Moving ahead with “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales” would mean navigating around critics and wooing back disappointed fans.

But the profit potential was too big to ignore. The fourth chapter, subtitled “On Stranger Tides,” was roundly seen as a creative dud, but it still took in $1 billion worldwide. Disney, convinced it could reinvigorate the franchise by fixing certain problems — nonsensical story lines, lackluster new characters — pressed forward.

The result: “Dead Men Tell No Tales,” which cost roughly $400 million to make and market worldwide, collected about $62.2 million from Friday through Sunday at North American theaters, or 38 percent less than “On Stranger Tides” did over its first three days in 2011, after adjusting for inflation. The new film, advertised as the franchise’s “final adventure” (hah!), is expected to add about $14.4 million in ticket sales on Memorial Day. (“On Stranger Tides” was not released on a holiday weekend.)

Reviews were horrible. Ticket buyers, however, gave the new film an A-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls.

Overseas, “Dead Men Tell No Tales” collected a strong $208 million, or 17 percent more than “On Stranger Tides” managed in the same countries, after adjusting for inflation, Disney said. The top foreign market was China, where the latest installment sold about $67.8 million in tickets, the strongest opening by far for a “Pirates” movie in that country, perhaps showing the impact of the Shanghai Disneyland, which opened last year and includes an entire themed area dedicated to the franchise.

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