“Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides” smaller budget could lead to bigger entertainment

in Disney, Movies

The LA Times is reporting that Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, the fourth film in the Pirates franchise, will be shot on a budget that is roughly two-thirds of the previous film.

Around $200 million is what Disney is giving producer Jerry Bruckheimer and his team of filmmakers to shoot this third sequel. The previous film, At World’s End, was shot on a budget of roughly $300 million – but is also often thought of as the least entertaining of the Pirates films.

The first film, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, had “only” a $140 million budget to work with and it became a worldwide phenomenon, going on to gross more than twice that in the United States and more than 4.5 times that amount worldwide.

To make the budget work for the new film, it’s reported that filmmakers will shoot for less days and include fewer shots that require computer effects. For those of us who found the second and third Pirates films to be far too dependent on these “enhancements,” it seems that this budget cut will do the franchise well, forcing it to return to its roots and focus more on the characters and less on unnecessarily complicated scenarios.

The LA Times article also notes that in the new film “Johnny Depp’s Jack Sparrow character would spend more time on land than water because of the high cost of shooting on the high seas.” So it will be more Pirates of the Caribbean and less Pirates in the Caribbean.

Shooting on Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides is scheduled to begin on June 14, 2010.

Sources: LA Times, Box Office Mojo

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