AS Film Studies - The Lone Ranger

After the long awaited new Johnny Depp film, "The Lone Ranger" has been considered to be a box-office failure. After extensive research I have discovered why people think this film has not lived up to the expectations that it was set.

With a reported budget of $225 million, people are calling The Lone Ranger the biggest flop of 2013, as after five days in the theaters over the 4th of July weekend the remake of the 1950's TV Western had only pulled in an estimated $48.9 million. In Comparison to Despicable Me 2, which, over its first two days of release, made roughly $58 million; over five days Despicable Me 2 made a huge $151 million. Many are saying that The Lone Ranger would be lucky to pull that much in over its entire box-office run.

People also have to take into consideration that Johnny Depp is not a guaranteed moneymaker, The Lone Ranger is one of Johnny Depp's many films that have become complete box-office disasters. These films include: The Rum Diary, The Tourist and Dark Shadows. It seems that the days of Johnny Depp's guaranteed film success is over. This is a common problem, the film's audience loses their attachment to the actor/actress. For example, people will no longer go to the cinema to see a film just because Arnold Schwarzenegger is featured in it; a good example of this is Schwarzenegger's film "The Last Stand", which flopped miserably.

Alternatively, another reason The Lome Ranger may not have not made as much money as it could have is because the colours of the film are extremely dull which can cause the audience to lose interest. Disney are known for making bright and colourful films as colour is used to create a sense of wonder. Other films created by Disney such as: Alice In Wonderland, Pirates of the Caribbean and Avatar are all box-office hits that used colour to make the film more beautiful. They used a variety of colours to capture the audience's attention and keep them interested. Whereas, The Lone Ranger's trailer gives off a very black and white feel to it, the lack of colour is sure to create at least some disinterest in the film.

Another reason that I believe The Lone Ranger may have flopped is due to the fact that the audience still have extremely high expectations of Johnny Depp's films and as this film didn't meet their incredibly high expectations, it was judged harshly. Johnny Depp himself says in an interview that "the critics had expectations that it would be a blockbuster" which, of course, was not the case as Disney is set to lose $124 million.

Of course, Disney should have considered when they were going to put this film into cinemas as the weeks prior to The Lone Ranger were absolutely packed with incredibly popular films. Man of Steel, Monsters University, White House Down and Despicable Me 2 were all set to be box-office hits. By the time The Lone Ranger was due to arrive in cinemas, film watchers will have become work out from paying the expensive cinema prices. As there was such a variety of long awaited films due before The Lone Ranger is it very likely that your average film watcher will not have felt any desperate need to go and watch The Lone Ranger. The film would have needed something very unique and never seen before to have been the box-office hit that Disney wanted it to be.