Why 'The Lone Ranger' was a flop (first induction task)

The Lone Ranger, directed by Gore Verbinski & starring Johnny Depp & Armie Hammer, was undoubtedly a commercial failure. We know this because, despite an large estimated budget of $225 million, the film only grossed $239 million worldwide.

Many people found that The Lone Ranger lacked vision. This can be seen (according to James Gadea of policymic) by the ballooning of the budget to almost $250 million. When a company has to keep changing the budget, it is a sign that the creative talent behind the film are doing lots of re-writes & re-imaginings & thus losing the original vision (if indeed there was vision to begin with). This lack of vision can often lead to a lack of direction & feeling of pointlessness for an audience.

Aside from the budgetary problems (& the subsequent  loss of vision caused by them), the shoot for The Lone Ranger was plagued with disaster. Often the weather on location could not be trusted, even resulting in wildfires on some occasions. This, of course, meant that filming took longer than expected. The weather & budgetary concerns were certainly not helped when an outbreak of chickenpox & even the death of a safety expert (Michael Andrew Bridger) decreased morale & slowed down production considerably. Also, many cast members had to extra formal training on horseback, gunslinging & lassoing.

These numerous problems looked very bad to the reviewers, many of whom published scathing reviews of The Lone Ranger long before it was released, which would have discouraged many potential viewers from making the effort of going to see it in the cinema. Actor Johnny Depp said "I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we even released the film", which for many reviewers is true. These reviews placed a metaphorical curse upon the film.

The reviewers had ample reason to notice The Lone Ranger & set their sights on it to shoot it down before it was even released, as the date of this release kept drastically changing. The film was originally set for a mid-2011 release but it was pushed aside in favour of Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, because Pirates was considered to be a priority & a fail-safe success & The Lone Ranger did not have a director at the time. After Gore Verbinski signed as director, the release date was moved to the 21st of December 2012 but this was pushed even further forward to the 31st of May 2013 due to production problems. When Dreamworks' Robopocalypse encountered its own problems & could not make the 4th of July weekend release date, Disney jumped into its place with The Lone Ranger.

The sum of all these negative factors can be seen in the losses made by the film, as this shows the negative response from audiences. The release date would have really affected this, as many huge-budget & highly anticipated films (such as Man Of Steel, Monsters University, White House Down & Despicable Me 2) were out slightly before The Lone Ranger, meaning most film-goers had already spent all their time & money on tickets for this film & thus had little reason to see The Lone Ranger after the unfavourable reviews, bland colour palette on the trailer & the general unfamiliarity with the character for youths (especially those not living in America).

sources: www.policymic.com, www.today.com, wikipedia