Pirates of the Caribbean producer Jerry Bruckheimer and Disney have ended their first-look production partnership, which has been in effect for over 20 years and 27 films.

Jerry Bruckheimer is the franchise producer for Disney, and he’s basically done the impossible and become a producer who is a household name. Over the last two decades, he and Disney have created 27 films together including Pirates of the Caribbean, National Treasure, and most recently The Lone Ranger.

Bruckheimer says, “It’s not about ‘Lone Ranger.’ It’s more about the types of movies Disney is making, and the types of movies we want to make, in addition to ‘Pirates.’” It seems difficult to imagine that The Lone Ranger’s box office woes have nothing to do with the departure of essentially the most prolific partnership in Hollywood.

Bruckheimer and Disney have clearly had loads of success together, and there’s no doubt Pirates 5 will be a hit, but the fact that Bruckheimer says he wants to move on to some projects that Disney isn’t interested in seems suspicious.

His production company is currently focusing on Beverly Hills Cop 4 and Bad Boys 3, which aren’t exactly a stretch from what he’s been doing with Disney. He’s clearly still in the franchise business and doesn’t seemed worried about landing a deal with another studio saying, “Our record stands for itself. Ten billion at the box office is not bad.”

It’ll be interesting to see if Mr. Blockbuster (yes, that’s his real nickname) starts producing some different films, and whether the true reason behind his split from Disney was because of The Lone Ranger’s box office failures, but it could just be time for him and his production company to move away from Disney.

Disney is busy enough with Pixar, Marvel, DreamWorks, and now Lucasfilm – which will reportedly include a new Star Wars film every year. We can’t imagine either side has any difficulties moving forward. Bruckheimer will still work with Disney on Pirates 5 and possibly National Treasure 3 according to THR.

Disney released an official statement which says, “The Walt Disney Studios and Jerry Bruckheimer have decided not to renew their first-look deal when it expires next year. Bruckheimer is looking to produce more mature films outside the scope of the Disney brand.”

We look forward to seeing how this successful partnership split pans out for both Disney and Bruckheimer when their deal ends in 2014.