{"id":104040,"date":"2017-05-25T02:11:58","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T06:11:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=104040"},"modified":"2017-05-25T02:11:58","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T06:11:58","slug":"pirates-of-the-caribbean-5-sails-into-new-franchise-waters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/05\/25\/pirates-of-the-caribbean-5-sails-into-new-franchise-waters\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Pirates of the Caribbean 5’ sails into new franchise waters"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Captain<\/a>
Captain Jack Sparrow might be a household name, but despite the cultural clout, the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d franchise has gone adrift. In some ways, it’s been a series of diminishing returns, and they’re not done yet. (Photo: Pirates Of The Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Captain Jack Sparrow might be a household name, but despite the cultural clout, the \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d franchise has gone adrift. In some ways, it’s been a series of diminishing returns, and they’re not done yet. As the fifth film, \u201cDead Men Tell No Tales,\u201d prepares to set sail Friday, it’s already facing a few hurdles, including a changed blockbuster landscape, a star with a diminished profile and a six-year gap between installments.<\/p>\n

In 2003 \u201cPirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl\u201d washed ashore like a revelation \u2014 Walt Disney Studios had made a good movie based on a theme park ride, and created an iconic (and money-making) character for Johnny Depp in the process. Fourteen years later things look quite different. The films, which have earned $3.7 billion globally, got progressively worse in quality, and, after the second, \u201cDead Man’s Chest,\u201d began to fall off in domestic box office returns too (worldwide earnings inched past $1 billion for the fourth, \u201cOn Stranger Tides,\u201d however).<\/p>\n

Disney has also become a different kind of studio, with their pricey but profitable acquisitions of Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm, in addition to their recent successes transforming their animated classics into live-action blockbusters.<\/p>\n

And yet, \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d soldiers on, and \u201cDead Men Tell No Tales\u201d has some tricks up its sleeve. With a fresh set of directors at the helm in Joachim Ronning and Espen Sandberg, the filmmakers have made a good effort to return to the spirit of the first film with a new, young cast in Brenton Thwaites and Kaya Scodelario, a return of both Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley and an Oscar-winning villain in Javier Bardem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe actors have worked with Disney and Jerry for many years to make this movie happen. One of the things they were worried about was to bring real characters to the movie,\u201d said Bardem. \u201cI think they brought a different heart to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bloom, the lasting appeal is simpler.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone says, ‘Why do these movies still work?’ And I say, because six-year-old kids are doing pirate performances. So it’s not like we kind of created anything particularly new and spectacular \u2014 although I think we did,\u201d Bloom said at the film’s Los Angeles premiere.<\/p>\n

While early buzz was good for \u201cDead Men Tell No Tales,\u201d critics have been less kind in their full reviews. The Associated Press’ Mark Kennedy called it a \u201cweary, battered fifth chapter\u201d that \u201clumbers into theatres this summer high on CGI tricks but with a hopelessly muddled plot and recurring characters basically running on fumes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter this fifth episode, you’ll wish Disney would just declare the franchise dead and tell no more tales,\u201d Kennedy wrote.<\/p>\n

Deep, too, following a string of flops and missteps, including \u201cThe Lone Ranger\u201d and the universally derided \u201cMortdecai,\u201d has been scrutinized for recent messy personal issues, including his divorce from actr<\/p>\n

In January, on the same day the pair finalized their divorce, Depp sued his former business managers seeking more than $25 million accusing them of grossly mismanaging his finances.<\/p>\n

Depp’s ex-managers have vehemently denied the actor’s allegations, saying they tried to warn the actor that his spending on lavish properties, vintage vehicles and other items was to blame. They contend Depp’s lifestyle cost more than $2 million a month to maintain.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople go through all kinds of weird stuff in the world,\u201d Bloom said. \u201cIt’s just a shame that it has to be dragged out into the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer put the spotlight back on the media.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnfortunately the media kind of picks on certain people. And it was his turn in the barrel,\u201d Bruckheimer said. \u201cHe’s a fabulous guy and a great artist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether or not the franchise will go on remains to be seen. Much of it likely depends on Depp, and cast members were not eager to imagine a \u201cPirates of the Caribbean\u201d without him aboard.<\/p>\n

Despite all this, tracking suggests that \u201cPirates 5\u201d could bring in around $80 million in its first weekend in theatres \u2014 both a robust number and the second lowest of the series. But ultimately the fate of the franchise, and Depp’s box office power, is in the hands of the ticket buyers.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter how the critics respond, it will be the moviegoers who have the ultimate power to make this film a hit and Johnny Depp could see a return to form after a series of box office disappointments and, unfortunately, very publicly exposed personal issues,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore. \u201cThe last ‘Pirates’ film earned 77% of its theatrical revenue outside of North America so it will be the international marketplace that determines whether the film will walk the plank or discover a treasure chest of box office booty.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

LOS ANGELES \u2014 Captain Jack Sparrow might be a household name, but despite the cultural clout, the \u201cPirates of the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":104044,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,106],"tags":[19551],"class_list":["post-104040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","category-hollywood","tag-pirates-of-the-caribbean-5","mauthors-lindsey-bahr","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}