Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

4 comments on Hacker News

1. NeutralRetricJun 10, 2022

   Many of those most expensive films spent much of their budgets on major actors. That’s a function of Hollywood accounting where actors need to be paid upfront for the potential value of the income generated rather than paid based on how well a film does.

   The most expensive film on that list Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011) out of a nominal 378.5 million paid $55 Million for Jonny Depp. Orlando Bloom made 11 million on that same film etc.

   By comparison Orlando Bloom made got $175,000 For The Lord Of The Rings trilogy and 21 million for the Hobbit trilogy.

2. NegativelmmDec 30, 2019

   > That's not the opposite. "What you end up with is something that spends an awfully long time, although not as long as its predecessors, doing a load of things that don't ever actually get anywhere". That's a quote from Mark Kermode reviewing "On Stranger Tides" the fourth of the Pirates movies. The main thrust of his criticism is that this movie is faithful to its origins specifically in the sense that it's an amusement park ride, a bunch of superficially exciting things happen in a pre-determined order that doesn't mean anything, nobody is changed by the experience and the operators of the ride don't care because now they have your money.

   The attack here is that it has nothing to say, not that it's overlong/bloated. If you think a movie is saying nothing then even 10 minutes would be "too long", but the movie's length isn't the salient problem.

   > my understanding is that Neil's "preferred text" largely existed before the initial publication and a version of that was seen by fan readers

   A handful of fan readers may have seen that text, but surely not a significant fraction of Hugo voters. Again this is a case where a popular vote has an advantage: voting will necessarily be based on what was widely published, whereas when an award is given by insiders it's more common for them to have access to a different edit.

3. NeutraljmdukeJun 6, 2012

   I get that television is, compared to most other art forms, a pretty new industry -- and that it's one with which many people are dissatisfied.

   Stuff like this is dumb, in my opinion. Television's a medium and its here to stay for quite a long time. I'm not saying cable is -- I'm not saying network television is -- but audiovisual vignettes, the process of producing something for it to be watched, are going to be here for a while.

   "We now expect interaction rather than passivity."

   This, in my opinion, is silly. The engagement of interaction and the engagement of presentation are two different experiences.

   I think the author makes a good point with regards to the barrier to entry decreasing; as a result, we're seeing more 'auteur' television, both on networks and on YouTube. Think back to the Renaissance, the shift from poets and great writers seeking patronage to the development of mass publishing -- we are seeing this within the video industry as well.

   "Why would big players like Dick Wolf and Jerry Bruckhiemer jump through hoops for major networks when they can distribute their content directly to consumers."

   Marketing, and the fact that the last Jerry Bruckheimer-produced film (On Stranger Tides) had a budget of $200 million.

4. NeutralwaterlesscloudDec 29, 2011

   Top ten movies for 2011-

   1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2

   2. Transformers: Dark of the Moon

   3. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

   4. The Hangover Part II

   5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

   6. Fast Five

   7. Cars 2

   8. Thor

   9. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

   10. Captain America: The First Avenger

   Yes, every single one is a comic book or a sequel. That's why they get made, they're what people pay to see. Everyone complains about it, everyone sees 'em.

   If you want different movies to be made, go see different movies.