Despite being such a popular and iconic historical topic, no one has attempted a pirate movie in the twenty years since Pirates of the Caribbean

Submitted by Trillamanjaroh t3_126z4tv in movies

Pirates have been constantly present in our culture for decades. It’s a genuinely fascinating part of history for a lot of good reasons. Yet I don’t think I’ve ever seen a pirate movie make it to theaters after the release of the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Certainly that’s a testament to the quality of those movies, but it had me wondering if there were any other examples of a franchise successfully dominating a genre to a similar extent?

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SparkJaa t1_jebt9k2 wrote

All the pirates went over to TV. Black Sails, Our Flag Means Death, Crossbones, Blackbeard...

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plop45 t1_jeeuppu wrote

It must cost a lot in props, sets, constumes, etc... for a 2h movie.

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Beatle_Matt t1_jec2em0 wrote

Not pirates per say, but fuck I want a sequel to Master and Commander.

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Asha_Brea t1_jebomtf wrote

What about the Captain Phillips movie?

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Now, I agree that it is weird that there are not more. Someone somewhere should be doing a (new) Sandokan movie series.

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DickieGreenleaf84 t1_jebpn3q wrote

Pirates! The great claymation movie was a huge success. Of course any "serious" movie would automatically be compared to the hit TV series "Black Sails" and any comedy to that one with the guy from Flight of the Conchords.

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FiremanPCT2016 t1_jebr3dh wrote

I feel like making a big budget 18th century pirate film will just invite unfair comparisons and be automatically labeled a "ripoff".

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Dottsterisk t1_jebpoag wrote

Until 65, the Jurassic Park franchise owned the dinosaur movie.

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2KYGWI t1_jebtk44 wrote

Looking at how 65's been doing, it still does.

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Asha_Brea t1_jebq68s wrote

Live action, because The Land Before Time had like 12 movies and there is Dinosaur and The Good Dinosaur, too.

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Dottsterisk t1_jebyj9d wrote

Sure, but if we’re counting kids movies than we’ve got to scrap the entire premise, because we’ve had plenty of animated pirates movies since 2003. And Peter Pan movies.

I figured we were talking about dominance of the genre.

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Vanquisher1000 t1_jec7cdt wrote

It's interesting that even in the years after Jurassic Park III, when Jurassic Park 4 failed to materialise, no Hollywood studio tried to make a dinosaur movie. The closest thing we got was King Kong, and that doesn't count because the dinosaurs weren't the focus of the movie and just happened to be there. I wonder if studios saw the downward trend in box office returns for the Jurassic Park trilogy and figured that franchise (dinosaur) fatigue was setting in.

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Spankywzl t1_jece2ja wrote

Cutthroat Island was such a massive bomb that studios did not want to chance making another in the genre for 8 years. Then Disney gave us the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

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Suzzique2 t1_jeck4vn wrote

I don't get why it did so bad. It's an awesome movie! Was it because the MC is a woman? I love Pirates of the Caribbean but Cutthroat is just as well done. Has a good plot is well acted.

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Spankywzl t1_jecwhuz wrote

I agree that it was unfairly judged. Some very cool old school stunts in Cutthroat Island, and it had been said by some that Geena just wasn't cut out to be an action hero. Those people are proven galactically stupid and wrong by her very next movie. After CI, Her then husband Renny Harlin's career as a successful big budget director was over, and Geena suffered too as her offers got smaller. It is a shame, because Long Kiss Goodnight was such a blast.

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DrRexMorman t1_jebtl8t wrote

There are 3 moderate budget pirate tv shows airing or set to premiere right now.

But movies are another story. Take a look at how these non-Jack Sparrow pirate movies performed and you will see why Hollywood is reluctant to make pirate movies:

2020 - Wendy

2015 - Pan

2013 - Captain Philips

2012 - Ice Age 5 (?)

2012 - Pirates!

2012 - One piece

2012 - A hijacking

2008 - The Pirates who don’t do anything

2003 - Sinbad

2003 - Peter Pan

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brademerika t1_jebxtq3 wrote

The Pirates 2014

The Pirates: The Last Royal Treasure 2022

Were both great fun.

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NoEmu2398 t1_jecjqx8 wrote

Jungle Cruise...kind of?

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cheffartsonurfood t1_jecr2es wrote

I'd be down for a reboot of Time Bandits........ehhhhhh maybe not.....

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JFrederickH t1_jefdvio wrote

I just remembered there was a movie in the 1980s called Ice Pirates? Don’t even remember what it was about. Probably ice pirates.

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Phil152 t1_jed0vrm wrote

Vikings were pirates*, and we've had plenty of Viking movies. I'm reminded of Gene Roddenberry's remark that Star Trek was a wagon train to the stars. Just take an old genre -- one that may be a bit worn and in need of a breather -- and transpose it to a different setting.

And speaking of space "westerns" ... well, I haven't watched that kind of film for years, but aren't there plenty of piratical types in sci fi films?

Not all pirates have to have eyepatches, wooden legs, and a Hollywoodized Elizabethan English accent.

*Yeah, yeah, I know: Vikings were a lot of other things besides pirates -- but raiders and pirates are homeground for Viking lore in the movies, largely because that is how they primarily impacted the (slightly) more civilized peoples of the British Isles and France, and the slightly more civilized victims of Viking pirates raids, in the end, were the people who wrote the history books.

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