Johnny Depp may not be expected to swagger back onto screens as Jack Sparrow anytime soon, but almost two decades after its original release, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl has surprisingly sailed through choppy waters to top the Hulu chart. The original Pirates movie was a massive hit back in 2003, and built a billion dollar franchise on the back of nothing more than a 2-minute Disney ride. Clearly, even after all this time, there is still life in the old sea dog yet, and with new movies in development, it couldn’t have happened at a better time.
Directed by Gore Verbinski, The Curse of the Black Pearl not only surprised many by basing an entire movie on a very old theme park ride, but also regenerated interest in the pirate genre, which itself had not been popular for a long while. As well as many more Pirates movies, TV shows like Black Sails also benefited from the new interest in the high seas. The first movie combined swashbuckling swordfights, ghostly specters, and, of course, introduced the world to the charismatic swagger of Captain Jack Sparrow. The plot, which in the end played second fiddle to Depp’s performance, saw Sparrow joining forces with blacksmith Will Turner and Governor’s daughter Elizabeth Swann, and taking on the undead pirate Barbossa as he looks to lift the curse put upon him and his crew.
The film defied low expectations, grossing $654 million worldwide, and becoming a critical and commercial hit with an 80% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer. A lot of praise was heaped on Depp’s eccentric performance, which became the heart of the franchise, and helped it sustain four sequels and become one of the highest-grossing film series of all time.
Pirates of the Caribbean is Coming Back Again
The last Pirates of the Caribbean movie was released in 2017, to a muted critical reception but continued strong performance at the box office with almost $800 million worldwide. However, thanks to several reasons, most notably Depp’s legal wrangling with former wife Amber Heard, the franchise has since stalled and appeared to have permanently sailed into the sunset.
But this is a big Disney IP, which means that it is never going to be allowed to just drift away as long as there is more box office potential to be extracted. Now there are two different Pirates movies in development, one that would continue the original franchise and a second that could reboot it, and there are also those who have not quite given up on seeing Depp swagger back onto screens as Jack Sparrow. One of those people is producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who has continually teased his desire to bring Depp back for one more round of swashbuckling adventure. He previously said:
“If it was up to me, of course. I love having Depp… He’s a great actor and good friend… I’ve certainly spoken to him, but we’ll see what happens.”
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The success of the original movie on Hulu has proven once again that there are a lot of people who still love the Pirates franchise, and as Depp continues to add more movies to his roster of movies – including the upcoming action thriller Day Drinker, which will reunite him with Pirates 5 costar Penelope Cruz – there are still those who believe that Jack Sparrow has not yet set sail for the last time.
- Release Date
- July 9, 2003
- Runtime
- 143 Minutes
- Budget
- $140 Million
- Studio(s)
- Jerry Bruckheimer Films , Disney
- Distributor(s)
- Buena Vista Pictures Distribution