See full version: 42 Swashbuckling Facts About The Pirates Of The Caribbean Movies
As of 2018, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End is still the longest film that Disney’s ever released. It clocks in at 169 minutes, which is around twice as long as most of their animated films. At the time, it was also hailed as one of the most expensive films ever made (until the next one was made, anyway). here
In Curse of the Black Pearl, there’s a scene where Barbossa explains that his monkey is named Jack, just as the monkey grins mockingly at Jack Sparrow. Apparently, the monkey’s grin was completely coincidental. The timing just worked out perfectly for the scene. [links]
Penelope Cruz was pregnant when she filmed her role in On Stranger Tides, and eventually it began to show. To hide this, Cruz’s sister was brought in as a body double for far shots, while Penelope filmed all her own close-ups.
It’s hard to blame Disney for avoiding a movie about pirates when you remember their last venture into the genre; Treasure Planet, based on the beloved classic Treasure Island, was one of the biggest box office flops that the company ever released (I don’t care what anyone says, it’s still a great movie). On top of that, Disney (and producer Jerry Bruckheimer) had already made some serious gambles on failures like Pearl Harbor. Honestly, it seems pretty amazing that this movie ever got made at all. [links]
Michael Eisner, then head of Disney Studios, had been deeply discouraged by the failure of The Country Bears, and was very wary about taking such a big chance on Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl. Johnny Depp’s performance especially got on his nerves; reportedly he was confused by whether Jack Sparrow was supposed to be drunk or gay, and even exclaimed that Depp was “ruining the film.” We wish we could have been the ones to tell Eisner about Depp’s Oscar nomination when it was announced.