LOS ANGELES — Jack Sparrow is back. The wry and wicked freebooter helped the latest Pirates of the Caribbean film sail to a first place opening weekend on North American screens, with a solid US$62.2 million take, according to industry estimates.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales surged past another Disney offering, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, to account for nearly half of the tickets sold by the top-12 performers in the first three days of the four-day Memorial Day weekend, Exhibitor Relations reported.

A dreadlocked Johnny Depp again plays Sparrow as he fights a crew of creepy ghost sailors led by the villainous Javier Bardem. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley return to the cast after skipping the last edition of Pirates.

Disney hopes the box-office plunder keeps rolling in: The elaborately produced Pirates cost the studio US$230 million to make.

The film has brought in an estimated US$208.4 million internationally and the series, hugely popular overseas, is now close to surpassing the US$4 billion mark.

Guardians is showing lasting power in its fourth week out. The lighthearted story of a band of misfit space adventurers -- played by Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel -- took in US$19.9 million. Paramount’s beach-centered action comedy Baywatch," an update of the popular 1990s television show, placed third at US$18.1 million. That was below expectations, Variety.com said, adding that the film -- with Dwayne Johnson, Zac Efron and Alexandra Daddario -- "was hoping to make an oceanic summer splash, but looks to have ended up in the kiddy pool".

Ridley Scott’s Alien: Covenant, last week’s box-office leader, dropped off sharply to fourth place.

The Fox film, starring Michael Fassbender, Noomi Rapace and Billy Crudup in the tale of a spaceship landing on a planet that seems idyllic -- until aliens attack -- netted US$10.5 million.

In fifth was Everything, Everything, a romantic drama from Warner Bros., at US$6.2 million. The film tells the story of a young woman (Amandla Stenberg) who is told she must spend her life indoors in a sterile environment due to a genetic disorder, but later learns she may have been deceived.

Rounding out the top 10 were:

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (US$4.4 million)

Snatched" (US$3.9 million)

King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (US$3.2 million)

The Boss Baby (US$1.7 million)

Beauty and the Beast (US$1.6 million). — AFP