Pirates of the Caribbean is a popular film franchise owned by Disney. Inspired by Disney's amusement park ride of the same name, the franchise uses the pirate fantasy genre with supernatural themes set in the 1700s. It features beautiful romps through pirate hijinks, swashbuckling fights, excellent costumes, convincing settings, and occasional CGI. Like many film franchises, the first movie is excellent, and the rest of the movies just never quite hit the same high mark again. Each new movie descends further into the realm of bad reviews, mostly due to the plots. So why do they keep making them? The answer, of course, is the franchise is still making money.
As with many film franchises, there is one character that stands out from the rest, propelling the franchise's popularity and sales. Captain Jack Sparrow exploded onto the scene in a huge way and is still beloved by audiences. Johnny Depp imbues the character with depth, humour, and instantly recognisable mannerisms. The costume is intrigueing also, and the majority of modern male pirate costumes from shops now take their cues from Captain Jack Sparrow's look. With the uniqueness and popularity of Captain Jack Sparrow, it is no wonder that Disney capitalised on the character by making sure he has been a big part of every single movie in the franchise to date. The only other two characters that have been in every movie to date are Captain Hector Barbossa and Joshamee Gibbs, but they don't have the same appeal and uniqueness as Captain Jack Sparrow.
The movies to date:
1st released 2003: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
2nd released 2006: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
3rd released 2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
4th released 2011: Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
5th released 2017: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales
An overview of how all the movies fit together:
The first movie is excellent, and can quite easily be watched and enjoyed on its own without seeing any of the other movies. Movie 2 picks up a small loose plot thread from the first movie and spins it into a new story with the same characters. Unfortunately, Movie 2 is not a whole story on its own, and must be watched in conjuction with Movie 3 in order to achieve a sense of complete plot satisfaction at the end. These three movies stood alone as a trilogy for a little while before Disney decided to make some more money and create Movie 4. Movie 4's story departs from the original trilogy, and is a standalone sequel. It replaced the original love interest couple with a new couple, introduced new main characters and retained only a few of the original characters. While Movie 4 can be watched on its own, it is better watched in sequence in order to obtain the better pleasure from having already followed Captain Jack Sparrow and other sundry characters on previous adventures. I have not yet seen Movie 5, but according to an IMDB synopsis I read, it takes a plot thread from the end of Movie 3 and spins a new story from it. Movie 5 appears to have once again replaced the majority of the main characters, while tying a few more of the original characters back in.
Other media:
There are a variety of video games based on Pirates of the Caribbean. Many are action roleplaying games for PC or console, including a MMO. Some are for mobile phones. Some are genres other than action roleplaying. The popular LEGO series of video games released a Pirates of Caribbean version covering the first four movies in 2011.
There are two spin-off children's book series. The first series, Jack Sparrow, is a prequel to the movies and contains more than 10 books. The series tells the story of Jack Sparrow in his teenage years. The second series, Legends of the Brethren Court, is also a prequel to the movies. This series tell the stories of Jack Sparrow in his twenties. In addition to the two children's book series, there is a book for adults, The Price of Freedom, set in time between the two book series and once again about Jack Sparrow.
As with many popular franchises, Pirates of the Caribbean versions of standard family boardgames have been released, including Monopoly and The Game of Life.
The official Disney website for Pirates of the Caribbean is http://pirates.disney.com/