The Pirates of the Caribbean Movie That Brought a Genre Back from the Dead

The Big Picture

• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl broke the mold for Disney and became a runaway smash hit.
• The film’s phenomenal casting, including Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow, was a major factor in its success.
• The scriptwriters utilized the commedia dell’arte form of theater to create colorful characters and slapstick comedy in the film.

Since Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, it’s been quite the road for the film franchise that gave birth to the iconic cinematic rogue known as Captain, or should I say “Cap’n,” Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp). Pirates of the Caribbean has brought in more than $4.5 billion worldwide from theatrical ticket sales over the five movies. In the 2000s, Pirates of the Caribbean had a cultural impact that equated to or surpassed some of the biggest brand names and IPs on the planet. People wanted to dress up as Cap’n Jack Sparrow on Halloween. “Savvy” and Jack Sparrow became household words.

On paper, the odds were not in favor of this franchise when it first began, but somehow, the creative team and dynamic cast found a winning formula and turned straw into gold. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl broke the mold for Disney in many ways. It was a runaway smash hit, as well as the first movie released under the Walt Disney Studios banner with a PG-13 rating. The film succeeded where Disney’s other attempts to adapt their popular theme park attractions into live-action features failed miserably. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl caught lightning in a bottle, but the question is, how?

The Plight of Getting ‘Pirates’ Made

The biggest obstacle that Pirates of the Caribbean faced ahead of its release was that pirate-themed movies did not have a good track record at the box office. The last major, big-budget pirate tentpole movie was Cutthroat Island, released in 1995. The film, by Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin, only managed to gross about $10 million against a budget of nearly $100 million. So at the time, it was a massive risk to make a big-budget, period-piece movie about a bunch of swarthy, foul-mouthed pirates. On top of that, it was a movie based on a Disney theme park attraction. While the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was a beloved favorite at Disney Parks, it was not exactly prestigious source material. Besides, how do you make a movie out of a theme park ride?

When Disney started adapting its theme park attractions into major motion pictures in the early aughts, the first release out of the gate was The Country Bears in 2002. Even at a relatively modest budget of $35 million, the film was still a gigantic flop and was savaged by critics. The Haunted Mansion was also a costly failure. Considering that, the odds were heavily stacked against Pirates of the Caribbean.

The ‘Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl’ Casting Was Phenomenal

The tremendous casting of the original Pirates film cannot be understated. The film scored Orlando Bloom fresh off his newfound, emerging stardom from appearing as Legolas in the first two chapters of The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Fellowship of The Ring and The Two Towers. Keira Knightley was also on the cusp of stardom at the time after her newly released international hit comedy, Bend It Like Beckham. With Bloom and Knightley as the male and female heroes and romantic leads of the story, Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, you had a promising young heartthrob talent in Bloom and a buzzworthy soon-to-be “It Girl” in Knightley. Additionally, the film’s coup de grâce was its casting of Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow. Depp was already an established name at the time. Earlier in his career, he became a pop-culture icon from his days on 21 Jump Street, but he earned his stripes as a celebrated and acclaimed actor in films such as Edward Scissorhands, What’s Eating Gilbert Grape, Ed Wood, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, and Chocolat. Depp was the production’s trump card, and his performance and characterization of Jack Sparrow made the franchise iconic. Jack Sparrow became the face of the franchise, as well as its wily mascot.

The rest of the cast were not slouches either. In the role of the villain, Captain Barbossa, Disney cast Oscar-winner Geoffrey Rush, best known for his more serious film roles in Shine and Quills. When you look at the film’s winning formula, Depp is undoubtedly a big part of that, yet a great hero is nothing without a great villain. Rush brought his amazing acting chops and went full bore with Captain Barbossa, providing a bad guy with charisma, presence, and pure magnetism. If Depp completely transformed into the role of Jack Sparrow, so did Geoffrey Rush with Hector Barbossa. Rounding out the cast was an experienced Thespian in Jonathan Pryce as Elizabeth Swann’s father, Governor Swann; Jack Davenport as the British naval officer, and romantic rival to Will for Elizabeth, Commodore Norrington; Kevin McNally as Mr. Gibbs; and someone by the name of Zoe Saldaña playing the pirate Anamaria. While it wasn’t a huge role for Saldaña, her career would go on to much greater and bigger heights in the aftermath of The Curse of the Black Pearl. What all these actors have in common, up and down, is that they were all perfectly cast in their roles. They dove into their characters and embodied both the time period, along with the film’s spirit of fun, swashbuckling action mixed with comedy. Casting directors Jennifer Alessi and Ronna Kress knew what they were doing with their infinitely inspiring casting decisions.

Director Gore Verbinski joined Pirates of the Caribbean shortly after the mainstream horror hit, The Ring. But when you look at Verbinski’s filmography, he didn’t take a big jump from small features to Pirates. He worked his way up through progressively bigger productions. He got his start directing music videos and shorts before making his feature directorial debut in the hit film, Mouse Hunt. That was followed by more hits with The Mexican and The Ring. Verbinski also proved he could work with multiple genres and major Hollywood names before accepting the role of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a job he was ready for and primed for the task. Pirates of the Caribbean was the culmination of all of Verbinski’s past work, and it all came together well. At a budget of $140 million, the film looks every bit of it onscreen. It’s a beautiful-looking picture that’s well-paced. It’s serious when it needs to be, and it strikes that right balance of humor with action. Despite the slapstick humor and goofy comedy, there are still high stakes, and the action is suspenseful. The film delivers to audiences everything they want when they go to a movie for a big summer blockbuster event.

The Play’s the Thing, Even with Pirates

Another major part of the Pirates’ winning formula was co-writers Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio. Before making Pirates, they had recently succeeded with the Oscar-winning animated movie, Shrek, which also earned their screenplay an Oscar nomination. When you look at Shrek, the film is a clever parody of the fairy tale genre, with a refreshing, modern spin. Shrek was so beloved for its time, not just for poking fun at pop culture, but also for the institution of The Walt Disney Company. It was a self-reflexive sendup of Disney animated classics. And now, they found themselves writing a big-budget blockbuster for Walt Disney Studios. They had also proven their chops writing period action-adventure movies beforehand with the 1998 hit movie, The Mask of Zorro.

One key to the success of their script with Pirates was how they modeled the story and characters off of a classic form of professional theatre called commedia dell’arte. In The Curse of the Black Pearl, you can see that old-world theatrical, commedia flavor through many of the characters, along with the humor. Jack Sparrow is the film’s version of the commedia Harlequin, a buffoon or type of court jester or comic servant. Britannica defines a Harlequin as a “wily and covetous comic servant,” and he was cowardly, superstitious, and plagued by a continual lack of money and food. The Harlequin is often led into “difficulties from which he managed to extricate himself by cleverness and irrepressible high spirits.” That most certainly fits Jack Sparrow to a T. The characters of Elizabeth Swann and Will Turner fit the mold of commedia’s Innamorati, young, star-crossed lovers. Governor Swann is like that of the Vecchi, wealthy old men, and masters. Captain Barbossa and Commodore Norrington resemble commedia’s Il Capitano, who are self-styled captains or braggarts.

Considering that Pirates of the Caribbean is set in the old-world period of the early 18th century, it was a smart choice to utilize a form of theatre that would have been popular with the masses throughout Europe at the time. Writers Elliott and Rossio tapped into these basic, primal building blocks for their colorful cast of characters. They took commedia as the basis for their pirate story, and the commedia style can also be seen through the film’s use of slapstick comedy, and Depp’s physical performance. Physical comedy, pantomime, recognizable character archetypes, and big costumes were all major aspects of commedia, and the film reinforces that.

Pirating the Cultural Zeitgeist

Depp’s performance as Captain Jack Sparrow left the biggest impression on audiences. The film was well-received by critics and audiences alike. It was a box office smash, despite the low expectations due to its genre. It would go on to garner four more installments and billions of dollars more in ticket sales and revenue. Interestingly, The Curse of the Black Pearl did not feature the Disney logo for its theatrical release. Disney was likely skittish about putting the studio’s logo in front of the film since it was rated PG-13. As mentioned earlier, no previous film released under the Walt Disney Studios banner had a PG-13 rating. The Curse of the Black Pearl was the first. That changed when Disney introduced its new studio logo for the franchise’s first sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. Keep in mind, this was years before Disney Studios acquired Marvel Studios and Lucasfilm. They didn’t have the Marvel Universe and Star Wars brands to play around in their sandbox yet. But with the Pirates films, Disney finally gained some muscle in the live-action blockbuster department.

With the success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Johnny Depp became the biggest star on the planet and one of the most bankable leads in town. He received an Oscar nomination for his turn as Sparrow, and he would return to the role for Disney four more times, his later personal and professional issues notwithstanding. The major players for the film would go on to have big careers, especially Verbinski, who directed the next two Pirates films. He also won an Oscar for his animated feature, Rango, where he once again collaborated with Depp. Despite a small supporting role, where she didn’t return for the sequels, Saldaña also did incredibly well post-Pirates, starring in Guardians of the Galaxy as Gamora, Star Trek as Uhura, and James Cameron’s Avatar as Neytiri.

Even though the last installment of the franchise, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, ends on a relative cliffhanger, the franchise has been in hibernation since 2017. That can largely be blamed on diminishing franchise returns, not to mention the issues of Depp’s private life that became very public in the ensuing years. There have been talks of franchise reboots and revivals for a while, but nothing has truly materialized. Looking back at all the installments, none of them caught lightning in a bottle as well as the original did more than 20 years ago.

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, and all its sequels are available on Disney+.

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