Two of Disney’s blockbusters have been slugging it out at the box office charts for the past few days — both films are billion-dollar hits and sequels in their respective franchises. Commercial performance is but one metric for measuring a movie’s impact, but it’s also a reliable predictor for future success. Johnny Depp has established himself as a bankable brand in the 2000s, and his name alone draws crowds to theaters. He certainly proved that with his 2006 action-adventure, which has now been outpaced by another Disney sequel.

​