3) Pirates Of The Caribbean
Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl must have seemed like an insane idea when it was pitched back in the early 2000s. The concept of taking a theme park ride and turning it into a major blockbuster budgeted at over $100 million is the kind of thinking that probably led to the disastrous 2012 film Battleship. Yet, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was a large success, riding off its witty charm, amazing VFX, and Johnny Depp’s phenomenal performance as Captain Jack Sparrow (which earned him an Oscar nod).
Sequels were set-up in the movie’s narrative, resulting in the back-to-back filming of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End. While receiving lower reviews than the first film, they still stuck to the same task of expanding the world/mythology of the pirates and continuing the story of Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan. But since those were released, Disney has continued to bring back the series from its resting place in order to ring out more money, even though the arc of Turner and Swan was relatively complete by the third one.
But of course, the reasoning has been that audiences are still interested in Jack Sparrow, and with the massive success of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, it seemed that their logic was sound.
However, with the latest iteration, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, underperforming in comparison to its predecessors, let us hope any ideas about continuing the franchise have now sunk to a watery grave. After all, there’s only so much Jack Sparrow one can take before needing to swallow a keg of rum.
