The "Pirates of the Caribbean film series", produced through Walt Disney Pictures, was enormously profitable, and demonstrated Bruckheimer's ability to create lucrative projects. ', the first film in the franchise, was released on July 9, 2003. A popular box office hit, it was well received by critics and filmgoers alike. After the unexpected success of the first film, Walt Disney Pictures revealed that a trilogy was in the works. ' was released on July 7, 2006. The sequel proved to be very successful, breaking records worldwide the day of its premiere. In the end it acquired a total of $1,066,179,725 at the worldwide box office, becoming the third and fastest film to reach this amount. The third film in the series, ', was released worldwide on May 25, 2007. Two more films, ' and "", were released, in 2011 and 2017, respectively. Altogether, the film franchise has grossed over $4.5 billion worldwide.