5 Movie Franchises That Got Better Over Time (And 5 That Got A Whole Lot Worse)

Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl remains one of the most purely enjoyable blockbusters of the 21st Century, one that seemingly came out of nowhere as an unknown entity and immediately won a legion of fans thanks to a combination of old-school swashbuckling mixed with cutting-edge effects and Johnny Depp's instantly-iconic performance as Captain Jack Sparrow.

However, none of the following four movies could come anywhere close to recapturing the lightning in a bottle, with each being greeted by worsening reviews as the law of diminishing returns well and truly set in. The mythology was constantly expanded to an almost incomprehensible degree, while Captain Jack's drastic increase in screentime only led to fatigue as the character began to overstay his welcome.

Dead Men Tell no Tales may have made almost $800m at the box office, but that was viewed as a disappointment coming off two consecutive billion dollar hits, and while a sixth high seas adventure is still in the works, the Pirates of the Caribbean have a long way to go to convince audiences that they haven't sailed way past the point of no return.