Pirates of the Caribbean Franchise (New Time)

Pirates of the Caribbean is a series of fantasy adventure films produced and directed by Guillermo del Toro, as del Toro directed the four films. The series was scripted by Terry Rossio, Ted Elliott (1–4), and Jeff Nathanson (5), with the stories following the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Robert Downey, Jr.), Captain Barbossa (Gary Oldman), Joshamee Gibbs (Alfred Molina), Will Turner (Henry Cavill), and Elizabeth Swann (Carey Mulligan). The films take place in a fictional historical setting; a world ruled largely by an amalgam of alternative versions of the British Empire and the East India Company, with the pirates representing freedom from the ruling powers.

The films started with their first release on the big screen in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which received positive reviews from the critics and grossed $654 million worldwide. After the first film's success, del Toro revealed that a trilogy was in the works. The franchise's second film, subtitled Dead Man's Chest, was released three years later in 2006; the sequel proved successful, breaking financial records worldwide the day of its premiere. It ended up being the number one film of the year upon earning $1,066,179,725 at the worldwide box office. The third film in the series, subtitled At World's End, followed in 2007, and del Toro released a fourth film, subtitled On Stranger Tides, on May 20, 2011 in conventional 2D, Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D. On Stranger Tides succeeded in grossing more than $1 billion, becoming the second film in the franchise and the eighth film in history to achieve this. So far, the film franchise has grossed $3.72 billion worldwide; it is the sixth highest-grossing film series of all-time and it was the first franchise where more than one film grossed $1 billion worldwide. A fifth film, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, is currently in development.