Lone Ranger Goes Boom! To Tune Of $150 Million Loss

[Easton Dark]

The western genre has to be the cheapest type of movie to make other than an indie black and white film about flipping pancakes.

Why did they spend so much :<

 

[Johnny Wishbone]

Not to go all tinfoil hat, conspiracy theorist on you guys, but has anyone considered that this was a "deliberate" bomb by Disney? If so, why would they do that? Well....

Thanks to the magic of "Hollywood accounting", (which is totally legit, by the way), movie studios are allowed to write off production costs, etc from one movie onto another. This allows them to claim that mega-blockbuster movies never actually make money in order to avoid paying net points and royalties to actors, directors, etc. As an example, Lucasfilm still claims that Return of the Jedi has NEVER turned a profit to this day, because they keep writing off other movies production costs against it (Google it). Of course, that just means that it never turned a profit to anyone who didn't get gross points or money off the top (like Lucas himself).

So why would they deliberately tank Lone Ranger? Disney just got the rights to the Star Wars franchise, which is pretty much a license to print money. So, they will use this turkey as a writeoff against the next Star Wars movie to keep it from turning a profit and to keep more money in their pockets. Don't be surprised if the next couple Disney movies are also considered box office "failures" (even if they make more money than their production and marketing costs). That way, they'll have a nice collection of writeoffs ready to go against the next Star Wars movie in 2014 (or whenever it's scheduled for release).

Just a theory....

 

[The Great JT]

Glad to see this bomb. Sad to see it drag down the name of the Lone Ranger, though.

 

[Pinkamena]

This makes me very happy I am tired of uninteresting Hollywood cash-in movies. Give us some variation damn it!

 

[Angelous Wang]

When I first saw the trailer for this, I figured it was PotC5 and Johnny Depp playing Jack Sparrow pretending to be a native American for some pirate scheme. He was really acting like he did in PotC2 film when he was on the cannibal island forced-pretending to be the native Chief. Plus the dread-plat hair and bandanna again.

I was kind of weirded out when It ended and it turned out to be a completely separate film.

So I am not surprised it failed.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

As it should be. Maybe they won't try this shit again.

 

[Gennadios]

I'm beginning to see a failure trend with movies that give their ethnic roles to white people...

Seriously, there have to be some actual Native Americans out there with acting skills. An authentic Tonto is all it would have taken to get me to see this.

 

[A_Play_On_Words]

I'm so happy this film is failing, the inner me is doing the Snoopy dance.
A Native American actor playing Tonto would not have saved this, but it's nice to see that Johnny Depp isn't ALWAYS box office gold. Sometimes he can be box office iron pyrite.

 

[WanderingFool]

Let's hope everyone was saving their money for Pacific Rim!

I know I am...

Also, never, never, NEVER, trust something that looks good on paper. Paper liesssss...

 

[Fox12]

Lone Ranger Goes Boom! To Tune Of $150 Million Loss

"Everything was perfect on paper," says Disney exec.

Source: Hollywood Reporter [http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-lone-ranger-could-lead-581503]


Permalink

You're movie was bad, and you should feel bad. "Everything was perfect on papar." Really? You idiots at Disney have to learn that there is no mathematical formula for success. You can't: Jerry Bruckheimer + Depp + Supernatural story = blockbuster. Audiences don't work that way, and as long as you continue to mass produce crap, or create another Pirates wannabe, you'll continue to fail. That's what happened with John Carter, that's what happened with Prince of Persia, and now it's happening with The Lone Ranger. I hope you go bankrupt Disney, though that will never happen, or that you start investing in STORY driven films again. The writers are out there Disney, just go into a starbucks and pick out like ten or fifteen of them.

 

[natster43]

I didn't know it was a movie until I saw the Escape to the Movies about it. Good to know a bad movie did terrible at the box office.

 

[rob_simple]

To all the people outraged/upset/crying racism over Depp getting the role: just how many big Native American actors are there that could have fit the role, instead?

I know that will reek of ignorance, but the only Native Americans I have ever seen in films are usually old blokes and, from what I understand, even some of them are actually Hawaiian or something because it's that difficult to find good NA actors.

Is there really an actor as talented as Depp who would have been a sure thing for a solid performance? Or are we, once again, getting all bent out of shape for the sake of it?

OT: This is a shame, I was looking forward to seeing the film.

 

[Worgen]

To all the people outraged/upset/crying racism over Depp getting the role: just how many big Native American actors are there that could have fit the role, instead?

I know that will reek of ignorance, but the only Native Americans I have ever seen in films are usually old blokes and, from what I understand, even some of them are actually Hawaiian or something because it's that difficult to find good NA actors.

Is there really an actor as talented as Depp who would have been a sure thing for a solid performance? Or are we, once again, getting all bent out of shape for the sake of it?

OT: This is a shame, I was looking forward to seeing the film.

Well one of the reasons no one can name any is that there are very rarely rolls for them, Tanto was an obvious roll for one but instead we get mr stupid had playing him. If mr stupid hat wanted to be in the movie he should have just been the lone ranger or a villian. Having an actual native american play Tanto might not have saved the movie but it wouldn't have hurt it as much as Depp obviously did.

 

[Sir Shockwave]

I saw it coming. But I didn't want it to fail.

I don't like cash-in reboots, but the movie looked cool enough......I mean it couldn't be worse than At World's End right?

Iunno...they're both bad movies, but I think Lone Ranger wins out here. I think "Simon Pegg playing Simon Pegg in yet another Simon Pegg movie" (or is it Nick Frost? Can't tell between the two) is the lesser evil when compared with a Movie that thought Racebending was a good idea.

 

[rob_simple]

To all the people outraged/upset/crying racism over Depp getting the role: just how many big Native American actors are there that could have fit the role, instead?

I know that will reek of ignorance, but the only Native Americans I have ever seen in films are usually old blokes and, from what I understand, even some of them are actually Hawaiian or something because it's that difficult to find good NA actors.

Is there really an actor as talented as Depp who would have been a sure thing for a solid performance? Or are we, once again, getting all bent out of shape for the sake of it?

OT: This is a shame, I was looking forward to seeing the film.

Well one of the reasons no one can name any is that there are very rarely rolls for them, Tanto was an obvious roll for one but instead we get mr stupid had playing him. If mr stupid hat wanted to be in the movie he should have just been the lone ranger or a villian. Having an actual native american play Tanto might not have saved the movie but it wouldn't have hurt it as much as Depp obviously did.

So in other words, no, there aren't any famous Native American actors, so making a Summer blockbuster where both leads are nobodies --I've never heard of Armie Hammer before this-- would have guaranteed a financial bomb; not that it changed anything in the end anyway.

The reason Johnny Depp was in this was most likely as a large bargaining chip for Bruckheimer to throw on the table in front of Disney; given that their PotC team-up has made them a damn fortune.

Also, when did it become cool to start hating Johnny Depp? He's a talented man and, from what I've read, also a jolly nice chap, is this that thing where we just hate success, again?

 

[Aiddon_v1legacy]

Man, this was an even worse idea than the 1981 Lone Ranger movie. At least that one had an actual Native American playing Tonto

 

[Worgen]

To all the people outraged/upset/crying racism over Depp getting the role: just how many big Native American actors are there that could have fit the role, instead?

I know that will reek of ignorance, but the only Native Americans I have ever seen in films are usually old blokes and, from what I understand, even some of them are actually Hawaiian or something because it's that difficult to find good NA actors.

Is there really an actor as talented as Depp who would have been a sure thing for a solid performance? Or are we, once again, getting all bent out of shape for the sake of it?

OT: This is a shame, I was looking forward to seeing the film.

Well one of the reasons no one can name any is that there are very rarely rolls for them, Tanto was an obvious roll for one but instead we get mr stupid had playing him. If mr stupid hat wanted to be in the movie he should have just been the lone ranger or a villian. Having an actual native american play Tanto might not have saved the movie but it wouldn't have hurt it as much as Depp obviously did.

So in other words, no, there aren't any famous Native American actors, so making a Summer blockbuster where both leads are nobodies --I've never heard of Armie Hammer before this-- would have guaranteed a financial bomb; not that it changed anything in the end anyway.

The reason Johnny Depp was in this was most likely as a large bargaining chip for Bruckheimer to throw on the table in front of Disney; given that their PotC team-up has made them a damn fortune.

Also, when did it become cool to start hating Johnny Depp? He's a talented man and, from what I've read, also a jolly nice chap, is this that thing where we just hate success, again?

Well considering that the movie seems to be a rather large bomb, they might have been better off just going with no names that allowed them to build a story, instead of a star vehicle.

I actually have no illwill towards Depp, I haven't actually seen a movie with him in it in a very long time. But, given the ads for his recent movies, they really seem to be mostly about him. Like, its a Johnny Depp movie, with all these other people.