The first film was not small-scale. Its budget, adjusted for inflation, was almost $200 million.
Well, that's not quite what I meant. I wasn't calling the first film small. Primarily I was referring to the small-scale of the original film's scope (rather than the world traveling epic with hurricane battles and dozens of ships and numerous CGI characters at any moment). Secondarily I meant a small
er budget by
comparison to whatever the hell has been going on.
Even ignoring the zombies and shit (since, you know, the first movie had undead pirates as villains as well), you cannot make a seafaring blockbuster cheaply, for the most part. Building boats is expensive. Shooting at sea/on water is expensive. Now, it doesn't need to be this expensive, but you're probably still looking at somewhere between $150-250 million with the budgets reigned in.
Sure, but I think there are ways to scale
all of that back. It might sound crazy to say, but I honestly don't think a PotC movie doesn't
necessarily have to spend so much time on the sea.
And yeah, the first movies had zombies, but not like in Pirates 2 and 3 (and... 4? I don't remember) where they frequently had several full-CGI characters on screen simultaneously throughout enormous parts of the movie, which is what I was getting at. (but I mean... they also don't need zombies at all - they were fun in the first movie as the twist, it didn't need to be a thing in ALL FOUR sequels)
Mind both of you though, I never actually said make one
on the cheap. Just stop letting the productions get so obscenely out of hand, after already greenlighting obscene budgets. I know the prior is easier said than done, but this franchise has like,
four of the most expensive films ever? Someone needs to knock something the fuck off lol.