Where Each Pirates of the Caribbean Sequel Went Wrong

No Pirates of the Caribbean installment has recaptured the freewheeling fun of the original movie, 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl, but what did each subsequent franchise outing get so disastrously wrong? It’s more than understandable that industry insiders did not expect the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl, to succeed at the box office upon the movie’s 2003 release. However, the failure of the film’s sequels with critics (despite the franchise’s financial success) is harder to understand.

Despite boasting Lord of the Rings star Orlando Bloom as its ostensible hero Will Turner, the original Pirates of the Caribbean had many warning signs of an impending flop. For one thing, many of the stars, such as Kiera Knightley and Geoffrey Rush, had little experience headlining blockbuster movies in leading roles. Meanwhile, the movie’s director Gore Verbinski was best known for his austere then-recent horror The Ring, which was far from fun, and swashbuckling action sub-genre as a whole had been unpopular at the box office since the historic failure of Renny Harlin’s infamous flop Cutthroat Island only eight years earlier.

Related: Why Terminator Is Better For Margot Robbie Than Pirates of the Caribbean

Despite these apparent impediments, The Curse of the Black Pearl soon proved to be that rarest of beasts — a big, fun summer…