I’ve never met a person who I know has seen it but doesn’t like Equilibrium.

…And it’s at a 7.3 on IMDb. That’s a pretty good rating.

Spot on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_highest-grossing_R-rated_films

That list isn’t adjusted for inflation, unfortunately, so the rankings aren’t entirely fair. Two things stood out to me, though. The early 00’s were a little sparse on R-rated hits (you have to go all the way down to #20 before they start to become more common). And 1991’s Terminator 2, adjusted for inflation, surpassed Passion of the Christ by $100,000,000, despite only being #18 (after PotC’s #10).

A short list further down the page shows only the timeline of highest grossing R-rated movies at their time of release. PotC is obviously absent from that list.

That’s a surprising number. Especially so since I don’t really recall any blatant product placements (well ok, I think there was one scene that stood out a little bit).

I’d say the number of brand partnerships is less a problem than how prominent those brands are displayed. I can’t think of the exact movies off the top of my head, but the most egregious instances I can think of only had one or two brands. Apple and BMW, for example, have had some seriously obnoxious brand placements in movies.