Pirates of the Caribbean is an American fantasy supernatural swashbuckler film series produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and based on Walt Disney's theme park attraction of the same name. The film series serves as a major component of the eponymous media franchise. Directors of the series include Gore Verbinski (films 1–3), Rob Marshall (4), Joachim Rønning (5–6), and Espen Sandberg (5). The series is primarily written by Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio (1–4); other writers include Stuart Beattie (1), Jay Wolpert (1), Jeff Nathanson (5), and Craig Mazin (6). The stories follow the adventures of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom) and Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), with Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush) and Joshamee Gibbs (Kevin McNally) following over the course of the films. Other characters featured in the original trilogy include James Norrington (Jack Davenport), Pintel (Lee Arenberg), Ragetti (Mackenzie Crook), Marty (Martin Klebba), Tia Dalma (Naomie Harris), and Davy Jones (Bill Nighy). The fourth film features Angelica (Penélope Cruz), Blackbeard (Ian McShane), Philip Swift (Sam Claflin), and Syrena (Àstrid Bergès-Frisbey), and Scrum (Stephen Graham). The fifth film features Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem), Henry Turner (Brenton Thwaites) and Carina Smyth (Kaya Scodelario) among the aforementioned characters. The films take place in a fictionalized version of the Golden Age of Piracy, and are set primarily in the Caribbean. The film series started in 2003 with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which had a positive reception from audiences and film critics. It grossed US$654 million worldwide. After the first film's success, Walt Disney Pictures announced that a film series was in the works. The franchise's second film, subtitled Dead Man's Chest, was released in 2006 and broke financial records worldwide the day of its premiere. Dead Man's Chest became the top-grossing movie of 2006 with almost US$1.1 billion at the worldwide box office. The third film in the series, subtitled At World's End, followed in 2007 earning US$960 million. Disney released a fourth film, subtitled On Stranger Tides, in 2011 in conventional 2D, Digital 3-D and IMAX 3D. On Stranger Tides succeeded in also grossing more than $1 billion, becoming the second film in the franchise and only the eighth film in history to do this, at the time of release. A fifth film, subtitled Dead Men Tell No Tales, was released in 2017. The franchise has grossed over $4.5 billion worldwide; it is the