Why No Pirates of the Caribbean Sequel Recaptured The Original’s Success

screenrant.com:

The real reason that none of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies could replicate the success of 2003's The Curse of the Black Pearl is that the later franchise installments failed to recapture the original movie’s unique structure. Most blockbuster hits have a story and character structure that is fairly easy to discern. For example, in Star Wars, Luke Skywalker is clearly the hero, Obi-Wan Kenobi is his mentor, and C-3PO and R2D2 are the comic relief.

While this can be complicated by a breakout character like Han Solo, whose popularity ends up overshadowing the movie’s true lead, this still doesn't change the basic setup. Princess Leia might be beloved by viewers, but Luke remains the POV character. However, 2003’s The Curse of the Black Pearl didn’t follow this to a tee, and its sequels failed to replicate its clever subversion of storytelling tropes. Thus, both the later sequels and the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy wasted  their chances at critical success by shifting the focus of the franchise.

Related: Why Margot Robbie’s Pirates of the Caribbean Reboot Won’t Work

While there were a lot of factors contributing to the critical underperformance of thePirates of the Caribbean sequels, one under-discussed element of the original movie's success was its story structure. While Orlando Bloom’s Will Turner seems, at first glance, to be the original movie’s protagonist, it is Kiera Knightley’s Elizabeth Swann thatThe Curse of the Black Pearl centers around. Elizabeth Swann is the character who undergoes the most dramatic transformation, it is her kidnapping that sets the plot in motion, and she is the star who eventually decides everyone’s fate in the ending of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Later