Depp alters course with new‘ Pirates’
After a string of flops, the actor returns to his bankable franchise captain
Johnny Depp’s rum- loving Captain Jack Sparrow has faced the legendary sea foes in 14 years of the Pirates of the
Caribbean franchise, from Blackbeard to Davy Jones, and somehow managed to stagger away victoriously.
But as Sparrow sets sail with the fifth installment in the $ 3.7 billion worldwide franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead
Men Tell No Tales, which arrives in theaters Thursday night, Depp is facing his ownHollywood survival off screen that’s providing the main source of drama.
The 53- year- old mega- star is in dire need of a box- office hit, following a string of high- profile flops since his last victory with 2011’ s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than this for Johnny Depp. Everyone in Hollywood will be watching to see how Pirates performs this weekend,” says Jeff Bock, senior box- office analyst for Exhibitor Relations. “Johnny Depp is Pirates of the
Caribbean. This is a huge test.” The eccentric, eyeliner- wearing Sparrow unveiled in 2003’ s Curse of the Black
Pearl earned Depp an Oscar nomination, solidified his leading- man status and launched a franchise.
“Johnny created this ... character, the opposite of what every studio executive says you need,” says Pirates producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “It’s a character with no arc. He just is what he is.”
Depp’s own story arc has been more pronounced, and distinctly downward, after his portrayal of the Hatter pushed Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland to $ 1 billion worldwide in 2010 and On
Stranger Tides reached the same mark a year later. The actor’s career has been marked by failures such as Burton’s Dark Shadows and 2013’ s implosion The Lone Ranger, featuring Depp as an unrecognizable Tonto.
When he played a buffoonish art dealer in 2015’ s Mortdecai, which tanked with a dismal $ 7.7 million box office, Depp insisted to USA TODAY that movie business was not his business: “If it’s good and people like it, that’s great. But numbers and stuff? No.”
But the drumbeat grew even louder with Depp’s disappointing return as the Hatter in 2016’ s Alice Through the Looking Glass, which conspicuously opened in second place lastMemorial Day weekend. The release came as Depp’s now exwife Amber Heard sought a restraining order, alleging that Depp assaulted her.
Since the couple’s rancorous divorce was finalized in January, Depp has continued to surface as the subject of the wrong type of press, including his lawsuit against his business managers, who said in their countersuit that Depp spent $ 30,000 a month on wine.
Bruckheimer sees no Pirates fallout from unflattering headlines (“Zero. The audience sees Johnny as Jack Sparrow and they absolutely love him.”) and blames Depp’s box- office doldrums on the natural cycles of a tough business.
He points to the adoring fans calling for Depp at packed world premieres this month in Paris and Shanghai as promising, especially after On Stranger Tides brought in 77% of its box office internationally. Ticket site Fandango reports that Pirates is outpacing Disney’s hit The Jungle Book in advance sales, while Bock predicts a “solid” $ 80 million to $ 85million opening weekend.