11 Years Ago, the Most Expensive Western in History Was Released. 250 Million Movie with Johnny Depp Became One of the Biggest Flops of All Time
The big movie flop with Johnny Depp is also the most expensive western. This year it celebrates its 11th anniversary.
It would seem that the pairing of Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski, who worked together on the first three installments of Pirates of the Caribbean, would herald a hit, so Disney invested big money in The Lone Ranger, which they worked on together. The most expensive western ever, unfortunately, disappointed the expectations of the filmmakers, ultimately turning out to be a gigantic flop.
The Lone Ranger debuted in theaters on July 3, 2013. The film starred Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, William Fichtner, Tom Wilkinson and Helena Bonham Carter, among others. Despite the star-studded cast and the use of a well-known character that originated in 1933, the filmmakers failed to make this western a blockbuster that would at least make a return at the box office.
Gore Verbinski's movie is said to have been invested $250 million after the production budget began to balloon and exceeded projected expenses. With such a huge sum, expectations for The Lone Ranger were high, but were not met, as the film earned only $260.5 million. That's not enough to be able to say that it at least made a return, since the money put into marketing must also be added to the production budget. So The Lone Ranger turned out to be a financial flop.
But that's not all, as the film starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer has additionally been crushed in reviews. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has only 31% positive ratings from critics, who wrote about it that it has a bland script, is stretched out and the action was definitely overdone. It's worth mentioning that the film's story, told by Native American warrior Tonto, features John Reid, a man of the law who became a legend of justice.
Jerry Bruckheimer, Verbinski, Depp, as well as Hammer blamed bad press for the film's failure. They criticized the fact that there was so much focus on The Lone Ranger's huge budget, rather than on the production itself. In addition, they accused reviewers of having approached the film with prejudice, which also reflected on the overall opinion of the movie (via Variety).
I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the film. I think the reviews were written when they heard Gore (Verbinski) and Jerry (Bruckheimer) and me were going to do ‘The Lone Ranger. They had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I didn’t have any expectations of that. I never do.
Bruckheimer added:
I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie. The audience doesn’t care what the budget is — they pay the same amount if it costs a dollar or 20 million dollars.
Hammer also joined the accusations against the press, alluding to the situation when Disney pulled out of the production a few weeks before shooting to reduce its budget. Ultimately, they greenlit The Lone Ranger.
This is the deal with American critics: they’ve been gunning for our movie since it was shut down the first time. That’s when most of the critics wrote their initial reviews. They tried to do the same thing with ‘World War Z’. It didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie.
The Lone Ranger has gone down in history as one of the biggest financial failures in theaters.
