Why was 'The Lone Ranger' was considered a box-office flop?

‘The Lone Ranger’, directed by Gore Verbinski, is a western action film which is based upon the radio series which shares the same name. It was produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Jerry Bruckheimer Films. The movie stars Johnny Depp as Tonto and Armie Hammer as John Reid aka The Lone Ranger. The film uses Tonto’s memories of their earliest encounters together to bring justice to the American West as a set base of the storyline. Although the film may seem good from its trailer, it was considered to be a box office failure. Majority of the film critics out there took this as their chance to pick it up on that, giving the film negative views and feedback. But why did it flop?

One of the main reasons why it flopped was because the audience just didn’t like this adaption of ‘The Lone Ranger’. Most of its audience still remember the original series back from when they were kids. By this we can see that they enjoyed the original quite a lot and sadly this version of the story didn’t live up to its name. This was one of the issues that film critics hit the most.

Tonto (Johnny Depp) talking to the Spirit Horse.

Just because Johnny Depp is in the movie, does not guarantee that the new motion picture will be a money-maker. The days when Johnny Depp could guarantee a film’s success in the industry seem to be over. This can be proven with some of his other films such as; Dark Shadows, The Tourist and The Rum Diary. This happens when actresses and actors become a disillusion to film audiences. This means that film audiences no longer have much interest in them therefore causes certain actors/actresses to not guarantee to make the film money. Younger generations are unaware of Johnny Depp’s big success in the film industry; this is another cause of him not being able to guarantee a film’s fate.

Another reason of why it flopped is down to the audience’s actions. Before ‘The Lone Ranger’ even came out into cinemas worldwide, there were many big movies that were destined to be big box office hits. These included; Man of Steel, Monsters University, White House Down and Despicable Me 2. This caused film lovers to empty their pockets before ‘The Lone Ranger’ even made its appearance on the big screen. This made audiences feel the need to miss this one as they thought that there wasn’t much of a need to go see it. This was because it wasn’t as big as the others. Due to this happening, the film didn’t end up being the box office attraction that Disney was hoping it would turn out to be.

Western films are shown to be a “no-go” zone. Past western movies, like Cowboys and Aliens, we’re seen like box office failures too. Same goes for Wild Wild West in 1999 and Alamo in 2004. This proves that the Western movie failures didn’t just spontaneously appear. This trend has come from the Western box office tent-pole itself. Back in the days when Clint Eastwood was the hype of film audiences, western movies were a big thing and a popular genre of that time. But as time grew on, Cowboys are no longer the hype of the film industry that they once were. This might be another cause of the failure of ‘The Lone Ranger’. As that too is a western film. It seems that ‘The Lone Ranger’ was caught up in the trend that is stuck with western tent-pole.

An example of the colour pallette used in 'The Lone Ranger'.

This may not seem like a good reason why the motion picture flopped but it is a film-goer’s habit. People who have watched ‘The Lone Ranger’ have stated that the colour palette of the film was too bland for their liking. Film audiences have become comfortable to the films where colour is used to create a sense of wonder. These include; Alice in Wonderland, Avatar and The Pirates of the Caribbean. These movies were all box office hits and they used colour in this way to express the beauty of the film. How colour is used in film is similar to how it is used in other things like advertisements. If you use a variety of different colours, it is easier to keep viewers interested in the film. The trailer for ‘The Lone Ranger’ gave off a black and white feel to it. This disinterested film-goers and they didn’t feel the need to watch it in the cinemas.

Also the trailer has some link to its failure. The trailer for ‘The Lone Ranger’ gave off a sense of adventure and humour. This intrigued many people and made the film look like it was worth a watch. But compared to the film itself, people thought that the trailer seemed better than the film itself. The trailer seemed more like a “best bits” video of the movie. The trailer to me showed off epic-ness and the thrill of adventure which majority of the film lacked. It is a shame for this to happen but it is a mistake that can’t be undone from this.

One major issue that has been picked up on is the film’s budget. The film budget of ‘The Lone Ranger’ was very expensive. The budget grew to about $250 million. Out of control budgets usually tell us that the film producers didn’t have a set vision in mind when making the film. No set vision means that however the movie ends up being, huge re-writes and re-imaginings have to take place. This affects the final product. This causes it to not have the same sort of effective story-telling it would have had if there was a set vision before they started production on the film. This makes ‘The Lone Ranger’ seem like it didn’t have much of a true storyline but they could have been referring to the original from time to time. This makes it seem a bit better as referring to the original will allow them to at least get some things right but not always.

In conclusion, ‘The Lone Ranger’ is definitely seen as a flop in the film industry due to the matter of reasons that I have explained. However, I have watched the movie myself and I thought that it was an alright film. Although it didn’t seem as good as the trailer in my opinion, it was still worth the watch. There was humour dotted around in places but in my eyes, I expected more. I also expected more action but to be honest, the amount of action shown was a decent amount. I have looked up on some reviews by film critics and some of them thought that the film was also a good watch. It is sad to see a movie with high expectations to fail in this way. I see this as a learning curve for film writers and producers to take to make sure they don’t have the same fate.