This week I am analyzing the 9th highest grossing movie since President Obama took office (boxofficemojo.com): Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides" ("PCST"). PCST is the 4th and most recent movie in the highly successful Pirates of the Caribbean series. PCST grossed $1.045 billion; an astonishing 76% of which came from international sales. The international sales could be due to its international cast, though the cast is principally from the U.S., U.K., and Spain.
PCST marks the first of the Pirates movies without Keira Knightley or Orlando Bloom. Captain Jack Sparrow, perennially played by Johnny Depp, is once again without his ship, the "Black Pearl." This time his ship in the hands of the dread pirate Blackbeard (Ian McShane) and his daughter (and past love interest of Sparrow's) Angelica Teach (Penelope Cruz). Geoffrey Rush reprises his role as Captain Barbossa.
So, how do non-whites fare in PCST? The answer lies with how you count Spaniards, as there are quite a few in PCST: are Spaniards white, or something else? If you count them as white (there is support for this), PCST is almost as white as last week's number 10 movie: Disney's "Alice in Wonderland (2010)." On IMDB's cast list, you have to go all the way to the 21st actor listed to find a non-white: Japanese actor Yuki Matsuzaki. The next non-white on the list is 25th place English actor Deobia Oparei - the son of Nigerian parents. The 3 or 4 other non-whites in PCST are essentially extras.
Since Disney created so many new characters with the movie, why didn't they strive for more diversity? With more than 3/4 of the revenue coming from international sales, one might guess that diversity would be helpful to their bottom line. I guess Disney didn't agree.
Disney holds 5 of the top 10 spots on our list, so hopefully they will show more racial diversity in their 3 movies still to be reviewed.
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