07/08/2026
Before "Pirates of the Caribbean" was a movie, it was a theme park ride with no plot, no characters, and no story to follow, just atmosphere. So when word got out that Disney was turning it into a film, Hollywood wasn't exactly optimistic; the genre was considered box office poison, and the whole thing smelled like a corporate cash grab.
Then "Curse of the Black Pearl" came out, and the rest is history: five movies, $4.52 billion at the box office, and fans still dressing up for it twenty years later.
What made the difference wasn't the cast. It was that the writers didn't start with what pirates are — they started with what people feel when they dream about them: freedom, danger, escape, a life outside the rules. They found the longing underneath the obvious, and built the story from there.
In the second installment of her storytelling series, Director of Story Elizabeth Menes connects that work to what we do for businesses every day: finding the real story underneath what a company makes or does. If a theme park ride can become a multi-billion-dollar franchise this way, imagine what it could do for you.
Read it here: https://loom.ly/SEb4XHo