The first Pirates of the Caribbean movie remains one of the greatest blockbusters of the 21st Century. On paper, turning a theme park attraction into a $140m special effects-laden movie in a genre that hadn't been popular for years seemed like a huge a gamble. In practice, director Gore Verbinksi pulled it off spectacularly; led by Johnny Depp's Academy Award-nominated performance, Curse of the Black Pearl offered a winning blend of action, heart and humor that turned out to be the first installment in one of the most expensive trilogies ever made. After the movie became one of the biggest hits of 2003 with over $650m at the box office, the decision was made to shoot two sequels back-to-back over the course of nearly two years in what was then the most expensive single production in history. Middle chapter Dead Man's Chest was budgeted at $225m, while the trilogy-closing At World's End became the costliest movie of all time with an eye-watering budget of $300m. While they weren't a patch on the original and suffered from unnecessarily over-complicated plotting, both movies were huge commercial hits. Hollywood isn't known for letting a profitable franchise go to waste, and fourth entry On Stranger Tides hit theaters four years later after jettisoning Verbinksi and most of the original cast, with the next installment Dead Men Tell No Tales in pre-production for a summer 2017 release.
I don't do social media, so like or follow me in person but please maintain a safe distance or the authorities will be notified. Don't snap me though, I'll probably break. I was once labelled a misogynist on this very site in a twenty paragraph-long rant for daring to speak ill of the Twilight franchise. I stand by what I said, it's crap.
