Pirates of the Caribbean 2, 3, 4 and 5 sit on the list of the 100 highest-grossing movies of all time, but a producer didn’t give a definite answer if the franchise will go on in an interview with Yahoo.
The fifth film, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is currently trailing its predecessor by about 24%, according to data pulled from Box Office Mojo. The budget is high on these movies ($230 million on this one before $150 million in advertising and what not, according to Deadline), so the high cost may not justify a sixth installment if revenues are expected to drop again.
“I think it did phenomenal,” Bruckheimer said. “I mean, you’re talking about the fifth [film] in the series in a down market, and the American dollar is so strong that we’re getting less returns from foreign.”
Bruckheimer says the movie would’ve crossed $1 billion at the box office had the movie come out around the time the fourth movie was released in 2011.
“The media likes to run with the reviews and we didn’t get great reviews, so they like to say it didn’t do well,” Bruckheimer said. “But god it’s at what, $790 [million] now? It’s amazing.”
As for a sixth installment, Bruckheimer hopes the fifth film’s home video life will push the conversation.
“Well, I hope we can continue to make it, but you know we’ve been having so much fun just promoting this one right now that we’ll just have to wait and see,” Bruckheimer said. “Hopefully it’s very successful on DVD as the other ones have been. Then hopefully we’ll sit down and see where we go.”
Bruckheimer is currently an executive producer on Lucifer, which airs its third season on Oct. 2. He is also producing the war film Horse Soldiers starring Chris Hemsworth, Michael Shannon, and Michael Peña that is set for release on Jan. 19.
