‘Pirates of the Caribbean’: How the First Film Became a Box Office … – Collider

While creating a theme park attraction after seeing a story on the big screen may seem like a fun job to tackle, going in the opposite direction - creating a box office smash hit film from a classic 1960s Disneyland ride - contains much higher stakes. For example, both of Disney's attempts at creating a Haunted Mansion-inspired movie never succeeded in a way that matched the iconic nature of the ride. Let's not even get started on The Country Bears or Mission to Mars. However, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl miraculously hit every right note, making it a gigantic box office hit and launching one of the most successful franchises ever. All based on some drunken animatronics in pirate's garb.

The film went on to create one of Hollywood's biggest franchises and is still beloved by millions. But what did it take for Disney to create the box office juggernaut? We're breaking down the cost of making Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl and how much Disney profited from the film. Remember that the full budgetary details for projects of this caliber are not typically shared publicly, and much of the following is based on reported data, estimations, and information based on similar projects.

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The Pirates of the Caribbean universe wouldn't be what it is today without Johnny Depp's performance as Captain Jack Sparrow. After the box office success of the first Pirates of the Caribbean, Depp began to earn $20 million for each of the films, so it can be inferred that his salary for the first was less, although still higher than average considering screenwriters were specifically writing the Jack Sparrow character to be played by Depp.

The cast also contains more of the early 2000s biggest stars: Keira Knightley and Orlando Bloom, requiring more big checks to be written. While Knightley reportedly earned around $3-$5 million for the first flick, it is rumored that Bloom made at least twice that amount. However, given the fact that Knightley's blink-and-you'll-miss-it cameo in the latest 2017 installment of the franchise earned her around the same amount she got for doing the entire first movie, it's safe to say her salary grew after The Curse of the Black Pearl.

The Pirates of the Caribbean films have always been ahead of their time in VFX, proving this to be true with the Oscar nomination they earned for Best Visual Effects in The Curse of the Black Pearl. These stunning effects are thanks to the crew's work at Industrial Light & Magic, Disney's VFX company founded by George Lucas in 1975 alongside his creation of Star Wars. Even with the star power of Industrial Light & Magic, the budget for the first movie made it difficult for the writer's vision of all their desired effects to come to life. While looking back at the half-pirate-half-skeleton crew might not seem impressive by today's standards, those creepy characters caused chills back when the feature premiered in 2003.

In an interview with THR, The Curse of the Black Pearl writer Terry Rossio said the tight budget caused the cursed pirates to only turn to skeletons in the moonlight.

With all the nighttime fight scenes, CGI was expensive at the time. We couldnt afford for the pirates to be skeletons all night long. I was sitting at the table and laughed out loud. Everyone looked at me. What if the pirates are skeletons at night, but only when the moon comes out? Can we get away with that? They loved it. Yes! When the budget gets tight, we just put a cloud in front of the moon! And thats what we did.

This proved extra tricky for the folks at Industrial Light & Magic, who had to ensure that every bit of the pirates' clothing, hair, and accessories matched their skeleton counterparts as they went from darkness to moonlight. With VFX costing roughly $2,000-$10,000 per minute, it's no wonder why there were some cloudy nights in Port Royal.

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While none of the sights you can see in Curse of the Black Pearl scream "Hollywood, California," a good chunk was actually shot in and around Los Angeles. While it undoubtedly saved some money for the production to shoot in California, there were a few more exotic locations where the cast and crew shot as well. The island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean was utilized as a primary filming location. Due to what would be the insane cost of actually having ships that were actively sailing, the main ships: Interceptor, Dauntless, and of course, The Black Pearl, were photographed while on barges and unmoving, while special effects, courtesy of Industrial Light & Magic, were added later.

To get all the cast and crew to the Caribbean, putting them up in hotels, plus the cost of shooting in this exotic location, surely cost the production a large chunk of their budget. Because pirate flicks were considered dead in the water due to recent flops from other studios, it's safe to say the production was probably worried about the success of reviving this genre. It's safe to say that reconstructing The Black Pearl ship in a soundstage was a much more relaxed filming day than when on set in a tropical location away from home.

Typically, a movie's marketing budget is the same as the shooting budget. Using this as a reference point, it can be inferred that Disney spent around that same $140 million on The Curse of the Black Pearl, and given the turmoil surrounding the film's entire production, it paid off handsomely for Captain Jack and his crew. In perhaps one of the biggest marketing moves possible, Disney reportedly spent $2 million on the July 2003 premiere at Disneyland, where guests could ride certain rides (including Pirates of the Caribbean) before and after seeing the newest Disney hit on the big screen.

Films tend to need to make double their total budget to break even. Thankfully for The Curse of the Black Pearl's crew, they earned more than their share of doubloons after its release, along with some extra shiny treasures in the form of Oscar nominations. In the movie's opening weekend, it scored over $46 million, going on to earn $654.2 million worldwide over its run in theaters. The flick scored five Oscar nominations, including Best Makeup, Best Sound Mixing, and Johnny Depp as Best Actor. The film has even been re-released in theaters so longtime fans can get their big screen fix. And, while many sequels tend to sink instead of swim, the 2006 sequel, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, did not disappoint its predecessor, as it crossed the billion dollar mark, earning $1.06 billion worldwide upon its release.

While The Curse of the Black Pearl was the fourth highest-grossing feature of 2003, it came in just behind the Disney-Pixar film, Finding Nemo, which brought in an incredible $871 million. 2003 was filled with more box-office-hits-turned-classic-movies like The Lord of the Rings: Return of the King ($1.14 billion), The Matrix: Reloaded ($739.4 million), Bruce Almighty ($484.5 million), and X2: X-Men United ($407.7). Some more familiar names on 2003's top list include The Last Samurai ($454.6 million), Love Actually ($244.9 million), and 2 Fast 2 Furious ($236.3 million). Even with those other iconic titles, none could quite beat Captain Jack Sparrow and his treasure chest of box office gold.

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'Pirates of the Caribbean': How the First Film Became a Box Office ... - Collider