Did Jungle Cruise’s Failure Hurt Pirates of the Caribbean 6?
While the Pirates of the Caribbean 6 production was never destined to be smooth sailing for the seafaring adventure franchise, the failure of Jungle Cruise could have held up the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel even further. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies were not expected to be a box-office juggernaut before the release of The Curse of the Black Pearl in 2003. While producers were obviously optimistic about the project’s potential, the historically terrible box-office performance of swashbuckling movies cast a long shadow over the movie.
However, Pirates of the Caribbean managed to avoid Cutthroat Island’s historic box office failure and even briefly revived interest in historical action-adventure movies thanks to its huge haul. The Pirates of the Caribbean movies continued to dominate at the box office in the years that followed, even as their competitors failed to find the right tonal balance to replicate the franchise’s success. However, the relative underperformance of Pirates of the Caribbean 5: Dead Men Tell No Tales, as well as the legal troubles faced by series star Johnny Depp, brought this momentum to a halt.
Related: What If Matthew McConaughey Played Jack Sparrow Instead Of Johnny Depp?
In 2021, Disney tested whether audiences were still invested in historical action-adventure comedy franchises with the release ofJungle Cruise, and the answer proved to be a resounding negative. Jungle Cruise earned middling reviews but fared terribly at the box office, proving Disney couldn't replace its flagship horror/comedy/fantasy/adventure franchise with another, suspiciously similar effort. Jungle Cruise was aPirates of the Caribbean replacement designed to check whether audiences of that earlier franchise would
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