Pirates of the Caribbean 6 isn't dead in the water just yet, according to producer Jerry Bruckheimer.

The future of Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) is in doubt after the fifth movie Salazar's Revenge, AKA Dead Men Tell No Tales, relatively underperformed at the box office with a global haul to date of $792 million.

That marks the lowest bounty of the series since the first movie, but Bruckheimer doesn't think of it as a failure.

'I think it did phenomenal,' he told Yahoo Movies. 'I mean, you're talking about the fifth [film] in the series in a down market, and the American dollar is so strong that we're getting less returns from foreign [markets].

'This movie would've [made] a billion dollars had it been back in the same financial [situation as On Stranger Tides]. But we lost 27% of our money just by the conversion rate.'

Of course, that doesn't justify why Salazar's Revenge is also the lowest-grossing outing of the series to date at the US box office as well.

The post-credits scene of Salazar's Revenge – which Bill Nighy didn't realise he was in – does set up a sixth adventure for Captain Jack, and it's something that Bruckheimer thinks could still happen.

'Well, I hope we can continue to make it, but you know we've been having so much fun just promoting this one right now that we'll just have to wait and see,' he explained. 'Hopefully it's very successful on DVD as the other ones have been. Then hopefully we'll sit down and see where we go.'

If there is a Pirates of the Caribbean 6, we've already had some thoughts on just where the franchise could sail after Salazar's Revenge.

Want up-to-the-minute entertainment news and features? Just hit 'Like' on our Digital Spy Facebook page and 'Follow' on our @digitalspy Twitter account and you're all set.