Johnny Depp in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Credit:Disney via AP At 73, Bruckheimer is still as productive as ever. Having just finished filming the Chris Hemsworth-Michael Shannon war movie Horse Soldiers, about a US Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan to fight the Taliban after the 9/11 attacks, he is preparing to shoot a long-awaited Top Gun sequel with Tom Cruise early next year. Also on the schedule are a third National Treasure movie and fourth Bad Boys and Beverly Hills Cop instalments. Regularly cited as one of the most powerful figures in Hollywood, Bruckheimer's hits date back to American Gigolo, Flashdance, Beverly Hills Cop and Top Gun in the 1980s. And as well as launching a series of blockbuster franchises – led by Pirates of the Caribbean – he has produced such TV series as CSI, Without A Trace, Cold Case and The Amazing Race. Bruckheimer insists that Hollywood is still making strong movies, as shown by the fact that international box office is up this year – boosted by growth in China – even though North American ticket sales are down.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer at the Hollywood premiere of Dead Men Tell No Tales in May. Credit:Jesse Grant "The movies we make are still terrific movies," he says. "They travel all over the world. "We've still got great filmmakers, great storytellers. We've got great actors coming out of Australia. Kaya Scodelario as Carina Smyth and Brenton Thwaites as Henry Turner in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Credit:AP "A lot of talent is chewed up by television now too. Creatively for the community here in Hollywood there's more work than ever before.

"In television, there are 500 dramas, so you see a lot of actors that you would never ever think would do television are doing it. And that takes eyeballs away from the theatres." Director Joachim Ronning on the set of Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales. Credit:Peter Mountain Bruckheimer pointedly notes that some movies that are widely viewed as disappointments are still big moneyspinners for Hollywood studios. It's a tap on the shoulder about Pirates of the Carribean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, the fifth instalment that was shot in Queensland after a federal government injection of $21.6 million plus state payroll tax exemptions towards a reported budget of $US230 million. The movie has Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) searching for Poseidon's trident, which has the power to break curses, while being hunted by the undead Captain Armando Salazar (Javier Bardem).

In a "new generation" approach to the series, Australian Brenton Thwaites plays Henry Turner, son of the first trilogy's Will Turner and Elizabeth Swann, with Kaya Scodelario​ as Carina Smyth, a feisty astronomer accused of witchcraft. While the reviews were far from flattering, Bruckheimer points out that Dead Men Tell No Tales was ranked a much better A-minus by movie-goers. And while it took a disappointing $US172 million in North America – easily the lowest for the Pirates series – it became a hit from ticket sales around the world. The movie tallied a surprisingly strong $US791 million, taking almost exactly as much in China as in North America. "It was a drop-off in the States for a number of reasons – one being that it's the fifth in the series," Bruckheimer says from Los Angeles ahead of the movie's home entertainment release this month.

"You usually take a 20 per cent dive from one to the next, unless you come up with something totally unique and then it can go back up again." Bruckheimer says there was also a drop-off in Britain because it opened in the week of a terrorist attack. Despite being shot here and featuring star turns by Thwaites, Geoffrey Rush returning as Captain Barbossa​ and David Wenham as a British naval officer, it took just $14.6 million in this country – almost half of the first instalment's $38 million. While the Pirates shoot in Queensland seemed troubled, with reports of Johnny Depp flying home and then the dramas over dogs Pistol and Boo that led to Depp and Amber Heard shooting the infamous "hostage-style video", Bruckheimer disputes that view. "I tell you what went wrong: your media was all over the picture and some of it was true and some of it wasn't," he says. "I'm sitting on the set with Johnny and I'm reading in the paper that he went home. He didn't. He was sitting right next to me.

"So there was a lot of miscommunication about what was going on on the set. The movie came in on budget, on time. So it wasn't a troubled movie at all from our perspective. "There might have been issues with some of the stuff that happened with Johnny and dogs and things like that but that didn't affect how well the movie was run." Despite the box office, Bruckheimer is not sure whether there will be a sixth instalment. "We hope we can get another one going," he says. "We haven't even met on it yet. "We're still promoting this one and basking in the success of it and now we're thrilled to put out the DVD … If that has a big success like the box office did, I think Disney will be coming to us maybe and saying let's make another one."

But Bruckheimer is also aware of the brutal realities of movie-making. "You never know," he says. "I thought we were finished after the first one but I guess I was wrong. That shows you what I know." If it does happen, Bruckheimer is open to shooting another instalment in Australia. He raves about the Australian crew who worked with Norwegian directors Joachim Ronning​ and Espen Sandberg, previously best known for the Oscar-nominated Kon-Tiki and the Netflix series Marco Polo. "You've got real great craftsmen, artists, there," Bruckheimer says. "We were so impressed with the workmanship, the attitude, of the crews. They were just wonderful."

Was there any downside to shooting in Australia? "Not from my point of view," Bruckheimer says. "The only drawback is it's a 14-hour flight for me, but we're gypsies so we have to go wherever we go. "Other than that, I love working over there. I'd love to come back and make a lot of movies there. The people are wonderful. We had phenomenal accommodations and the food was terrific. The crew was very happy. "I think everybody who worked on the picture is looking forward to coming back and working again. I'm not sure about some of the people in Australia with Johnny and the dogs but other than that, I think we're in pretty good shape." Some Hollywood filmmakers have worked out how to extend franchises in ways that keep attracting audiences. For the Star Wars saga and the Fast and Furious movies in particular, recent movies have been bigger hits than earlier instalments.

So what's the secret to making strong sequels? "It's the people you work with," Bruckheimer says. "You get a new idea or the series is dormant for a while and people want it to come back, like Star Wars. They had JJ [Abrams] in and a great group of people working on it. You bring in new talent and they come up with new ideas. "The same thing with Fast and Furious. They came up with some interesting ideas in how to keep it going forward and they did a very good job of it." How hard is it to keep coming up with new stories to extend a franchise? "It's always hard," Bruckheimer says. "That's the hardest thing to do is come up with new ideas, new stories, and try not to tread on old ideas that we've had in the past.

"But there's so much creative talent in Hollywood: these terrific writers and directors you find. Nobody would ever have picked the Kon-Tiki guys to make this movie based on three small movies they made in the past. "It's always a challenge but we try to rise to the occasion. Sometimes we get there, sometimes we don't." Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales is released online on September 6 and on DVD on September 13.