Fifth Pirates film arrives, hoping to steal hearts again

Disney banking on franchise’s latest instalment to recapture spirit of original blockbuster

LOS ANGELES— Captain Jack Sparrow might be a household name but, despite the cultural clout, the Pirates of the Caribbean 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, Dead Men Tell No Tales, 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 instalments.

In 2003, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl washed ashore like a revelation — 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 (U.S.) globally, got progressively worse in quality and, after the second, Dead Man’s Chest, began to fall off in domestic box office returns, too (worldwide earnings inched past $1 billion for the fourth, On Stranger Tides, however).

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.

And yet, Pirates of the Caribbean soldiers on and Dead Men Tell No Tales 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 Oscarwinning villain in Javier Bardem.

“The 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,” Bardem said. “I think they brought a different heart to it.”

For Bloom, the lasting appeal is simpler.

“Everyone says, ‘Why do these movies still work?’ And I say, because 6-year-old kids are doing pirate performances. So it’s not like we kind of created anything particularly new and spectacular — although I think we did,” Bloom said at the film’s Los Angeles premiere.

Depp, following a string of flops and missteps, including The Lone Ranger and the universally derided Mortdecai, has been scrutinized for recent messy personal issues, including his divorce from actress Amber Heard.

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.

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 Pirates of the Caribbean without him aboard.

Despite all this, tracking suggests that Pirates 5 could bring in around $80 million in its first weekend in theatres — 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.

“No 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,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst for comScore.

“The last Pirates film earned 77 per cent 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.”