8 Film Franchises That Became Victims Of Their Own Popularity

7. Pirates Of The Caribbean Became An Over-The-Top Mess

It's incredibly easy to forget, but 2003's Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl was good. Really good. The film was a traditional adventure story with tons of jokes and some fantastic performances (particularly Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rush). The music was epic, the locations were lavish and the whole thing was just great fun. This is largely due to the fact it was based in part on a Disneyland theme park ride, so there was a strong focus on creating over-the-top yet light-hearted thrills.

But that which was great about the franchise is ultimately what destroyed it. Everyone loved the random and quirky Jack Sparrow, so 2006's Dead Man's Chest turned his ridiculousness up to eleven, like the scene that sees him caught in a giant waterwheel like a frightened hamster. 2007's At World's End literally contains a scene with a dozen Jacks, which shows how devoid of ideas the writers must have been (if fans like something, why not multiply it?). Then there's the crazy action set pieces. The first fight between Sparrow and Will Turner at the blacksmith's, while exaggerated, is well choreographed and somewhat believable, but this devolved into scenes like Jack repeatedly falling off a cliff in Dead Man's Chest and the ridiculous maelstrom wedding which caps At World's End. Pirates Of The Caribbean was once a whimsical, affectionate homage to the pirate genre, but the franchise turned the intensity of everything up so much that it lost what was special in the first place.