Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl

This article is about the film. For the video game based on the movie, see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (video game). For the soundtrack, see Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (soundtrack).

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Gore Verbinski
Screenplay by	Ted Elliott Terry Rossio
Story by	Ted Elliott Terry Rossio Stuart Beattie Jay Wolpert
Based on	Walt Disney's Pirates of the Caribbean
Produced by	Jerry Bruckheimer
Starring	Johnny Depp Geoffrey Rush Orlando Bloom Keira Knightley Jonathan Pryce
Cinematography	Dariusz Wolski
Edited by	Craig Wood Stephen Rivkin Arthur Schmidt
Music by	Klaus Badelt Hans Zimmer
Production company	Walt Disney Pictures [ Jerry Bruckheimer Films
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures Distribution
Release dates	June 28, 2003 (2003-06-28) (Disneyland Resort) July 9, 2003 (2003-07-09) (United States)
Running time	143 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$140 million
Box office	$654.3 million

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl  (originally titled Pirates of the Caribbean) is a 2003 American fantasy swashbuckler film directed by Gore Verbinski. Produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and distributed by Walt Disney Pictures, the film is based on the Pirates of the Caribbean attraction at Disney theme parks and is the first film in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series. The film stars Johnny Depp, Geoffrey Rush, Orlando Bloom, and Keira Knightley. The plot follows the pirate Jack Sparrow (Depp) and the blacksmith Will Turner (Bloom), as they attempt to rescue the kidnapped Elizabeth Swann (Knightley). The trio encounters Captain Hector Barbossa (Rush) and the crew of the Black Pearl, who are afflicted by a supernatural curse.

Executives at Walt Disney Studios drafted a rough treatment for the film in 2000. A script was developed by Jay Wolpert in 2001, and was rewritten by Stuart Beattie in early 2002. Around that time, the producer Jerry Bruckheimer became involved in the project. He brought in screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio, who had drafted a premise for the film in the 1990s. Elliott and Rossio added the curse to the script to align the film's story with the theme park ride. Gore Verbinski eventually signed on as the director. Filming took place from October 2002 to March 2003 in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and on sets in Los Angeles, California.

Pirates of the Caribbean had its world premiere at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, on June 28, 2003. It was theatrically released in the United States on July 9. Despite low expectations, the film was a massive box-office success: it grossed $654.3 million worldwide, making it the fourth-highest-grossing film of 2003. It received generally positive reviews from critics, with particular praise going to the performance of Depp, who won a Screen Actors Guild Award. He was also nominated for awards at the Academy Awards, the BAFTAs, and the Golden Globes. Pirates of the Caribbean was also nominated for additional Academy Awards and BAFTAs. The film was followed by four sequels: Dead Man's Chest (2006), At World's End (2007), On Stranger Tides (2011), and Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).

Plot

In the early 18th century, Governor Weatherby Swann and his daughter, Elizabeth, sail aboard HMS Dauntless with Lieutenant Norrington and his crew. They recover a shipwreck survivor, a boy named Will Turner. Elizabeth takes a gold medallion from around Will's neck, before seeing a ship with black sails. Eight years later in Port Royal, Jamaica, Norrington is promoted to commodore. While the promotion ceremony is taking place, the pirate captain Jack Sparrow arrives in Port Royal. After the ceremony, Norrington proposes to Elizabeth. Due to her tight-fitting corset, she faints and falls into the ocean, which causes the medallion she is carrying to emit a pulse. Jack rescues Elizabeth before escaping from Norrington, who has identified him as a pirate. Will encounters Jack and duels him until Jack is captured and imprisoned.

That night, Port Royal is attacked by the pirate crew of the Black Pearl, the ship Elizabeth saw years earlier. The pirates are searching for the medallion, and take Elizabeth aboard the ship to meet Captain Barbossa. He explains that the medallion is one of 882 gold pieces used to bribe Hernán Cortés to stop his slaughter of the Aztecs. Because of Cortés's greed, the Aztec gods placed a curse upon the gold. Barbossa's crew found the gold at Isla de Muerta, but after spending it, they became immortal zombies. To lift the curse, the crew must return all the gold with an offering of blood. Barbossa intends to use Elizabeth's blood for the ritual.

To save Elizabeth, Will frees Jack from prison. They stage an attempt to steal the Dauntless, which prompts Norrington and his crew to pursue them on HMS Interceptor. Jack and Will then sneak onto the Interceptor and escape. They head to Tortuga to find Joshamee Gibbs and recruit a crew. On Isla de Muerta, Jack and Will creep into the treasure grotto, where Barbossa fails to lift the curse with Elizabeth's blood. Will and Elizabeth flee with one of the medallions on the Interceptor, while Jack is captured by Barbossa and locked up aboard the Pearl. A battle ensues between the Pearl and the Interceptor. Will realizes that Barbossa needs his blood for the rite, and he surrenders himself to ensure Elizabeth's freedom. Barbossa destroys the Interceptor, then deposits Jack and Elizabeth on a deserted island. Elizabeth creates a smoke signal, which allows the Navy to find and rescue them. Elizabeth then accepts Norrington's marriage proposal on the condition that he rescue Will from Barbossa.

That night, Jack and Norrington make a plan to ambush the pirates at Isla de Muerta. Norrington, however, plans to attack the pirates himself, and Jack convinces Barbossa to refrain from lifting the curse until after they have killed Norrington's men. Having anticipated the battle to come, Jack secretly palms a medallion so he can be immortal. He then frees Will and duels Barbossa. As Norrington's crew battle the immortal pirates, Elizabeth slips away to free Jack's crew, who flee on the Pearl, leaving her to save Will and Jack by herself. After Elizabeth helps defeat some of Barbossa's crewmen, Jack shoots Barbossa just as Will returns the last of the medallions with their blood, which lifts the curse. Now mortal, Barbossa dies from Jack's gunshot, and the rest of Barbossa's crew are killed or surrender.

At Port Royal, Will declares his love for Elizabeth. He then rescues Jack, who was about to be hanged. After a scuffle, Jack and Will are surrounded by Norrington's soldiers. Elizabeth stands by their side and declares that she will marry Will instead of Norrington. Jack falls into the sea, then is rescued by the Black Pearl, which has a new crew. Norrington decides to give Jack "one day's head start" before pursuing him. Governor Swann gives his blessing to Will and Elizabeth, while Jack is made captain of the Pearl and sails off toward the horizon.

Cast

Main articles: List of Pirates of the Caribbean cast members and List of Pirates of the Caribbean characters

• Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow: A notorious pirate characterized by his slightly drunken swagger, slurred speech and flailing hand gestures. He is determined to reacquire the Black Pearl.
• Geoffrey Rush as Captain Barbossa: The captain of the Black Pearl. He was Jack's first mate before he led a mutiny. Barbossa and his crew stole cursed Aztec gold and became immortal zombies.
• Orlando Bloom as Will Turner: A blacksmith's apprentice working in Port Royal who is in love with Elizabeth Swann. Will struggles with the fact that his father was a pirate.
• Keira Knightley as Elizabeth Swann: The daughter of Governor Weatherby Swann. She has been fascinated with pirates since childhood and is in love with Will.
• Jack Davenport as Norrington: An officer in the Royal Navy who seeks to marry Elizabeth.
• Kevin R. McNally as Joshamee Gibbs: Jack's loyal first mate who once served in the Royal Navy.
• Zoe Saldana as Anamaria: A pirate who wants to confront Jack for stealing her ship. One of the film's screenwriters, Terry Rossio, stated that the name "AnaMaria" was chosen because it is the middle name of his daughter.
• Jonathan Pryce as Governor Weatherby Swann: The father of Elizabeth and the governor of Port Royal.
• Treva Etienne as Koehler: A member of Barbossa's cursed crew who is killed by Norrington.
• David Bailie as Cotton: A member of Jack's crew. His parrot talks for him because his tongue was cut out.
• Lee Arenberg as Pintel: A member of the cursed crew.
• Mackenzie Crook as Ragetti: A member of the cursed crew who has a wooden eye.

Supporting characters include the cursed pirates Grapple (Trevor Goddard), Bo'sun (Isaac C. Singleton Jr.), Mallott (Brye Cooper), and Twigg (Michael Berry Jr.), as well as the dwarf pirate Marty (Martin Klebba), Lieutenant Gillette (Damian O'Hare) and Officer (Greg Ellis). The soldiers Murtogg and Mullroy are portrayed by Giles New and Angus Barnett, respectively.

Production

Development

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 Sparrow to rescue Elizabeth, 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.

Disney was unsure whether to release the film in theaters or direct-to-video. The studio was interested in Matthew McConaughey as Sparrow because of his resemblance to Burt Lancaster, who had inspired that script's interpretation of the character. If they chose to release it direct-to-video, Christopher Walken or Cary Elwes would have been their first choice.

In May 2002, Gore Verbinski signed on to direct Pirates of the Caribbean. He was attracted to the idea of using modern technology to resurrect a genre that had disappeared after the Golden Age of Hollywood. He recalled his childhood memories of the ride, feeling the film was an opportunity to pay tribute to the "scary and funny" tone of it.

Although Cook had been a strong proponent of adapting Disney's rides into films, the box-office failure of The Country Bears (2002) made Michael Eisner attempt to shut down production of Pirates of the Caribbean. However, Verbinski told his concept artists to keep working on the picture, and when Eisner came to visit, Eisner was astonished by what had been created.

As recalled in the book DisneyWar, Eisner asked "Why does it have to cost so much?". Bruckheimer replied, "Your competition is spending $150 million," referring to franchises like The Lord of the Rings and The Matrix. Eisner concurred, but with the stigma attached to theme-park adaptations, Eisner requested Verbinski and Bruckheimer remove some of the more overt references to the ride in the Pirates of the Caribbean script, such as a scene where Sparrow and Turner enter a cave via a waterfall. Another change made, was adding The Curse of the Black Pearl as a subtitle, should the film be a hit and lend itself to sequels like Raiders of the Lost Ark. This brought protest, due to the Black Pearl being the name of the ship and nothing to do with the pirates' curse. Although Verbinski thought the subtitle was nonsense, Eisner refused to back down and The Curse of the Black Pearl remained the subtitle, although on most posters and trailers the words were so small as to be barely visible.

Influence of the Monkey Island series of games

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.

Casting

Stuart Beattie, who drafted early versions of the film's script, said he created the character Jack Sparrow with Hugh Jackman in mind to play the part. However, since Jackman was not well-known outside of his native Australia, the more-famous Johnny Depp was cast instead. Depp found the script quirky; rather than seeking treasure, the crew of the Black Pearl were trying to return it; also, the traditional mutiny had already taken place. Initially Sparrow was, according to Bruckheimer, "a young Burt Lancaster, just the cocky pirate." Jim Carrey was considered for the part, but the production schedule for Pirates of the Caribbean conflicted with Bruce Almighty. Other actors considered for the role include Michael Keaton and Christopher Walken. Eventually, Depp was cast, as Bruckheimer felt he could give the character the edge.

Johnny Depp in 2009

At the first read-through, Depp surprised the rest of the cast and crew by portraying the character in an off-kilter manner. After researching 18th-century pirates, Depp compared them to modern rock stars and decided to base his performance on Keith Richards. Although Verbinski and Bruckheimer had confidence in Depp, partly because it would be Bloom who was playing the traditional Errol Flynn type, Disney executives were confused, asking Depp whether the character was drunk or gay, and Michael Eisner at one point proclaimed, "He's ruining the film!" Even Bruckheimer was slightly uncomfortable with Depp's decision to cap his teeth with gold. Depp later recalled, "I said, 'Look, these are the choices I made. You know my work. So either trust me or give me the boot.' And luckily, they didn't."

Verbinski approached Rush for the role of Barbossa, as he knew he would not play it with attempts at complexity, but with a simple villainy that would suit the story's tone. Contrarily, Rush felt that he was playing the unsung hero of the film, who only dreamed about lifting the curse and living as a rich rogue with his prized pirate bride and developed an intricate backstory for the character to play him more convincingly. Originally, Rush was the second choice for the role behind Robert De Niro, who turned it down because he expected the film to flop in a similar manner to previous pirate films; he regretted this decision later, and accepted the role of Captain Shakespeare in the movie Stardust. Barbossa was conceptualized as a villain, a "dark trickster", and an evil counterpart to Sparrow. Depp created the name "Hector Barbossa" on set, but the name was never revealed onscreen.

Tobey Maguire, Jude Law, Ewan McGregor, Ben Peyton, Christopher Masterson, Christian Bale, Tom Hiddleston and Heath Ledger were considered for the role of Will Turner. Orlando Bloom read the script at the suggestion of Rush, and was eventually selected for the part. Tom Wilkinson was considered for the role of Governor Swann, while Brian Cox turned down the role because he did not want to work with Depp. The role of the governor ultimately went to Jonathan Pryce, whom Depp idolized.

Filming and design

Verbinski did not want an entirely romanticized feel to the film, but rather a sense of historical fantasy. Most of the actors wore prosthetics and contact lenses. Depp had contacts that acted as sunglasses, while Rush and Lee Arenberg wore dulled contacts that gave a sinister feel to the characters. Mackenzie Crook wore two contacts to represent his character's wooden eye: a soft version, and a harder version for when it protrudes. Their teeth and scurvy skin were dyed on. Depp carried a genuine pistol, which was made in London in 1760. A number of swords were built for the production by the blacksmith Tony Swatton.

The crew spent five months creating the cavern in which Barbossa and the Black Pearl crew attempt to reverse their curse, filling it with five feet of water, 882 gold coins, and applying gold paint to the styrofoam rocks for more impressions of treasure. The Port Royal fortress was built in Rancho Palos Verdes, California. Governor Swann's mansion was built at Manhattan Beach. A fire broke out in September 2002, causing $525,000 worth of damage, though no one was injured.

The filmmakers chose St. Vincent as their primary shooting location, as it contained the quietest beach they could find. They built three piers and a backlot for Port Royal and Tortuga. Of most importance to the film were the three ships: Black Pearl, Dauntless, and Interceptor. For budget reasons, the ships were built on docks, with only six days spent in the open sea for the battle between Black Pearl and Interceptor. Dauntless and Black Pearl were built on barges, with computer-generated imagery finishing the structures. Black Pearl was also built on the Spruce Goose stage, in order to control fog and lighting. Interceptor was a re-dressed Lady Washington, a full-scale replica sailing ship from Aberdeen, Washington, fully repainted before going on a 40-day voyage beginning December 2, 2002, arriving on location on January 12, 2003. A miniature was built for the storm sequence.

Principal photography began on October 9, 2002, and wrapped on March 7, 2003. The quick shoot was only marred by two accidents: as Sparrow steals Interceptor, three of the ropes attaching it to Dauntless did not break at first, and when they did snap, debris hit Depp's knee. He was not injured, and the way the incident played out on film made it look like Sparrow merely ducks. A more humorous accident was when the boat Sparrow was supposed to arrive in at Port Royal, sank. In October, the crew was shooting scenes at Rancho Palos Verdes. In December they were shooting at Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and in January they were at the cavern set at Los Angeles. The script often changed with Elliott and Rossio on set, with additions such as Gibbs (Kevin McNally) telling Will how Sparrow allegedly escaped from an island—strapping two turtles together with rope made of his back hair—and Pryce was written into the climactic battle to keep some empathy for the audience.

Because of the quick schedule of the shoot, Industrial Light & Magic immediately began visual effects work. While the skeletal forms of the pirates revealed by moonlight take up relatively little screen-time, the crew knew their computer-generated forms had to convey the performances of the actors, or else the transition would not work. Each scene featuring them was shot twice: a reference plate with the actors, and then without them to add in the skeletons, an aesthetic complicated by Verbinski's decision to shoot the battles with handheld cameras. The actors had to perform their scenes again on the motion-capture stage. Filming was completed a mere four months before release, which caused Verbinski to spend 18-hour days in the editing room. There were 600 visual effects shots, 250 of which involved merely removing modern sailboats from the shot.

Music

Main article: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (soundtrack)

The musical score was composed by Klaus Badelt and Hans Zimmer. Hans Zimmer served as the music producer. Seven other composers, including Geoff Zanelli and Ramin Djawadi, received credit for "additional music". Verbinski oversaw the score with Badelt and Zimmer, who headed 15 composers to finish it quickly.

Composer Alan Silvestri, who had collaborated with Verbinski on Mouse Hunt and The Mexican, was originally hired to write the film's score. Citing creative differences with Bruckheimer, Silvestri left the project before recording any material. Verbinski and Bruckheimer decided to go with Zimmer's team instead, who were frequent collaborators on their productions. Zimmer declined to do the bulk of the composing, as he was busy scoring The Last Samurai. As a result, he referred Verbinski to Klaus Badelt, a relatively new composer who had been a part of Remote Control Productions, known as Media Ventures at the time, for three years. Zimmer however ended up collaborating with Badelt to write most of the score's primary themes. Zimmer said he wrote most of the music in the space of one night,[5] and then recorded them in an all-synthesized demo credited to him. This demo presents three of the score's themes and motifs, concluding with an early version of "He's A Pirate" which differs from the final cue and includes a development of a melody Zimmer wrote for the score to Drop Zone.

The song Elizabeth Swann sings in the opening of the film as a child, and then later on the island marooned with Jack Sparrow, is called "Yo Ho (A Pirate's Life for Me)'". It was written by George Bruns with lyrics by Xavier "X" Atencio. It is the song heard throughout the attraction Pirates of the Caribbean in Disneyland and Magic Kingdom.

Marketing

The first teaser trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean, in which only one second of actual footage of the film was used, was attached to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers as well as Disney's official website on December 17, 2002. By March 2003, sensing the possibility of sequels, Disney has added the subtitle of "The Curse of the Black Pearl" to the film. On April 6, 2003, the full trailer of Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, the first to feature footage from the film, was shown on every TV station Disney owns as well as being available to watch online, with some videos featuring an introduction by Orlando Bloom.

Release

Rating

Pirates of the Caribbean was the first film released under the Walt Disney Pictures banner to be rated PG-13 by the MPAA, for action/adventure violence. One executive noted that she found the film too intense for her five-year-old child. Nonetheless, the studio was confident enough to add The Curse of the Black Pearl subtitle to the film in case sequels were made, and to attract older children. Verbinski disliked the new title because it is the Aztec gold rather than the ship that is cursed, so he requested the title to be unreadable on the poster.

Home media

The DVD and VHS editions of the film were released December 1, 2003, in the United Kingdom and December 2, 2003, in the United States, with 11 million copies sold in the first week, a record for live action video. It earned $235 million from DVD sales as of January 2004. This THX certified DVD release featured two discs, featuring three commentary tracks (Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski; Jerry Bruckheimer, Keira Knightley and Jack Davenport; and the screenwriter team), various deleted scenes and documentaries, and a 1968 Disneyland episode about the theme park ride. A special three-disc edition was released in November 2004, in the United States and April 2005, in the United Kingdom.

A PSP release of the film followed in April 2005. The high-definition Blu-ray Disc version of the film was released in May 2007. This movie was among the first to be sold at the iTunes music store. The Curse of the Black Pearl had its UK television premiere on Christmas Eve 2007 on BBC One at 20:30 and was watched by an estimated 7 million viewers.

In January 2022, The Curse of the Black Pearl was released on Ultra HD Blu-ray. However, the film's remaster was criticized by various online reviewers for being upscaled from 2K resolution, excessive application of digital noise reduction and various other shortcomings. A review by Martin Liebman of Blu-ray.com compared the release unfavorably to the previous 2007 Blu-ray release, stating: "The picture's grain has been reduced to a meshy, artificial appearance, looking frozen and flat and certainly less than genuine and flattering. Edge enhancement is in evidence. Textures have been scrubbed down and sharpened back up. Details appear waxy and lacking complexity [...] This is just a real clunker of a UHD image and one of the least impressive the format has seen."

2023 re-release

As part of Disney's 100th anniversary, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl was re-released in theaters from July 7 to 20, 2023, on the film's own 20th anniversary.

Reception

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.

The film opened at number one ahead of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, grossing $46,630,690 in its opening weekend and $70,625,971 since its Wednesday launch. It 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. The film was overtaken by Bad Boys II during its second weekend, but still made $34 million. 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 #1 weekends and ten in total), Avatar (with 11 consecutive #1 weekends) and The Smurfs (with eight consecutive #1 weekends). As of February 2021, it is the 141st-highest-grossing film of all time.

Critical response

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on 220 reviews, and an average rating of 7.1/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "It may leave you exhausted like the theme park ride that inspired it; however, you'll have a good time when it's over." At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted average rating to reviews, the film received an average score of 63 out of 100, based on reviews from 40 critics indicating generally favorable reviews. Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale.

Alan Morrison of Empire felt it was "the best blockbuster of the summer", acclaiming all the comic performances despite his disappointment with the swashbuckling sequences.

The performance of Depp as Sparrow was particularly praised. Review site PopMatters applauded Depp's performance, saying "Ingenious and mesmerizing, Johnny Depp embodies the film's essential fantasy, that a pirate's life is exciting and unfettered." James Berardinelli of ReelViews also applauds Depp's performance by saying "Pirates of the Caribbean belongs to Johnny Depp...Take away Depp, and you're left with a derivative and dull motion picture."

Roger Ebert acclaimed the performances of Depp and Rush, and particularly that "It can be said that [Depp's] performance is original in its every atom. There has never been a pirate, or for that matter a human being, like this in any other movie... his behavior shows a lifetime of rehearsal." However, he felt the film went on for too long, a criticism shared by Kenneth Turan's negative review, feeling it "spends far too much time on its huge supporting cast of pirates (nowhere near as entertaining as everyone assumes) and on bloated adventure set pieces", despite having also enjoyed Depp's performance. Mark Kermode described the film as "a triumph of turgid theme-park hackery over the art of cinema".

Accolades

See also: List of accolades received by the Pirates of the Caribbean film series

For his performance as Sparrow, Depp won several awards, including Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role at the 10th Screen Actors Guild Awards, Best Male Performance at the 2004 MTV Movie Awards, and Best Actor at the 9th Empire Awards. Depp was also nominated for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy at the 61st Golden Globe Awards, Best Actor in a Leading Role at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, and Best Actor at the 76th Academy Awards, in which The Curse of the Black Pearl also received nominations for Best Makeup, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects. Awards won by Curse of the Black Pearl include Best Make-up/Hair at the 57th British Academy Film Awards, Saturn Award for Best Costumes, Golden Reel Award for Sound Editing, two VES Awards for Visual Effects, and the People's Choice Award for Favorite Motion Picture.

American Film Institute Lists

• AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
• AFI's 10 Top 10 – Fantasy – Nominated

Sequels

Following the critical and commercial success of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Pirates of the Caribbean became a multimedia franchise encompassing films, books, video games, and theme park attractions. While The Curse of the Black Pearl was conceived as a standalone film, its writers Elliott and Rossio turned it into the first of a trilogy, in which two back-to-back sequels were released: Dead Man's Chest in 2006 and At World's End in 2007. Depp, Bloom, Knightley, Rush, and McNally returned for both films. A short film created as a prequel to The Curse of the Black Pearl, titled Tales of the Code: Wedlocked, was directed by James Ward Byrkit, who was a creative consultant for Gore Verbinski in the Pirates trilogy.

A fourth film, On Stranger Tides, was released in 2011. Following the release of The Curse of the Black Pearl, Disney approached author Tim Powers about optioning his novel On Stranger Tides for a Pirates film, a decision which was finalized near the end of filming the first two sequels. With the stories of both Will and Elizabeth resolved, and both Bloom and Knightley declining involvement in a fourth film, a stand-alone sequel was developed focusing on the further adventures of Sparrow. Depp, Rush, McNally, Greg Ellis, and Damian O'Hare reprised their roles from the previous films.

The fifth film, Dead Men Tell No Tales, was also developed as a standalone sequel and was released in 2017. Rossio was contracted to write the screenplay in 2011, but his script was rejected by 2012. The screenwriter Jeff Nathanson was hired, along with the directors Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, who were quoted as being inspired by The Curse of the Black Pearl. Depp, Rush, McNally, Martin Klebba, Giles New and Angus Barnett returned to their roles from previous films. Despite the studio and producer guideline that Knightley and Bloom would not return, as well as the actors' past comments about not wanting to return, they made cameo appearances as their respective characters. An untitled sixth film is currently in development, with Jerry Bruckheimer returning as a producer.

External links

• Official website
• Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl at IMDb
• The Curse of the Black Pearl title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database