Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2003 · 144 min
Directed by Gore Verbinski. Written by Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio. Photographed by Dariusz Wolski. Starring Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, Keira Knightley.
When wily pirate Captain Barbossa seizes Jack Sparrow’s beloved ship, the Black Pearl, and kidnaps the governor’s daughter, Elizabeth Swann, blacksmith Will Turner reluctantly teams up with the unpredictable pirate Jack to rescue her—only to uncover a terrifying curse that turns Barbossa’s crew into the undead.
Critics 79% · audiences 86% · streaming on Disney+ · $305 million in the US and Canada on its first run · $349 million elsewhere · about 51 million tickets sold, 17% of the country · 4 Oscar nominations
What they said about Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
- 2003
a fast-moving, wickedly funny and vividly mounted distraction that brings to mind adventure romps like The Mummy, The Princess Bride and The Mask of Zorro.
— Duane Dudek, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - 2003
I love it, but much in the way I managed to love The Phantom Menace -- in spite of its bloat, swaggering self-importance and largely neutered characters.
— Gregory Weinkauf, Dallas Observer - 2003
a triumph of turgid theme-park hackery over the art of cinema
— Mark Kermode
How it got made
In 2001, Jay Wolpert wrote a script based on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, which was based on a story created by the Walt Disney Studios executives Brigham Taylor, Michael Haynes and Josh Harmon. This story featured Will Turner as a prison guard who releases Jack Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth Swann, who is being held for ransom by Captain Blackheart. By March 2002, Disney brought Stuart Beattie in to rewrite the script because of his knowledge of piracy. Beattie stated that he talked about making a pirate film based on the ride while tossing a Frisbee with a friend and wrote a first draft titled "Quest for the Caribbean" while on exchange to Oregon State University in 1991.
Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio notably thought about a pirate film based on the ride during the early 1990s, having pitched the idea after completing work on the 1992 film Aladdin as a premise to studio executives who were not interested at the time. Undeterred, the writing team refused to give up the dream, waiting for a studio to pick up their take on a pirate tale. Having worked with Disney on Aladdin and the 2002 film Treasure Planet, among other successful films, Elliott and Rossio were also brought in for Pirates of the Caribbean to give it a "more supernatural spin". Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio were the final writers to receive screenplay credit, while all four writers received story credits.
When Dick Cook managed to convince producer Jerry Bruckheimer to join the project, he rejected Jay Wolpert's script because it was "a straight pirate movie". Later in March 2002, Bruckheimer brought Elliott and Rossio, who suggested making a supernatural curse—as described in the opening narration of the ride—the film's plot.
At the box office
Before its release, many journalists expected Pirates of the Caribbean would be a box-office bomb. The pirate genre had not been successful for many years, with Cutthroat Island (1995) being a notable failure. Depp was known mostly for starring in cult films, but Pirates of the Caribbean has been cited as launching his career as a leading man.
On its opening day, Pirates of the Caribbean collected $13.5 million. The film opened at number one ahead of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, grossing $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and $70,625,971 since its Wednesday launch. It went on to surpass Armageddon to have the highest July opening weekend for a Disney film. That record would be held until the debut of The Village a year later. The film also achieved the biggest opening weekend for Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp's careers, replacing The Mexican and Sleepy Hollow respectively. The latter lasted for two years until 2005 when Tim Burton's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory surpassed it. The film would also outgross another pirate-themed film, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, while staying ahead of the summer's top earner, Disney's own Finding Nemo. It was overtaken by Bad Boys II during its second weekend, but still made $34 million. For its third weekend, it maintained second place behind Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, generating $23.1 million and beating newcomers Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life and Seabiscuit. Pirates of the Caribbean eventually made its way to $654,264,015 worldwide ($305,413,918 domestically and $348,850,097 overseas), becoming the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003, as well as joining Finding Nemo, Bruce Almighty, X2, and The Matrix Reloaded as one of the first five films to pass the $200 million mark in one summer season. Box Office Mojo estimates that the film sold over 50.64 million tickets in the US.
Internationally, Pirates of the Caribbean dominated for seven consecutive weekends at the box office, tying the record of Men in Black II at the time. Only three movies after that broke the record; its sequel, Dead Man's Chest, (with nine consecutive No. 1 weekends and ten in total), Avatar (with 11 consecutive No. 1 weekends) and The Smurfs (with eight consecutive No. 1 weekends). As of February 2021, it is the 141st-highest-grossing film of all time.
Afterwards
Ted Elliott was allegedly writing a George Lucas-produced animated film adaptation of The Curse of Monkey Island, which was cancelled before its official announcement, three years prior to the release of Pirates of the Caribbean. This film was allegedly in production at Industrial Light and Magic before being cancelled. Ron Gilbert, the creator of the Monkey Island series, has jokingly expressed a bitterness towards Pirates of the Caribbean films, specifically the second film, for its similarities to his game.
Gilbert has stated that Tim Powers' 1987 novel On Stranger Tides, which was adapted into the fourth Pirates film, was the principal source of inspiration for his video games. Pirates screenwriter Terry Rossio mentioned how Disney was hit with at least six plagiarism lawsuits for the first Pirates of the Caribbean film for supposedly stealing elements of the Monkey Island video game and the On Stranger Tides novel, despite there being a ride at Disneyland and also a first draft screenplay by other writers.