Not looking good for "Lone Ranger"

fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/box-office-report-despicable-me-579766

According to early Wednesday returns, Despicable 2 will gross $30 million-plus on Wednesday, putting the 3D animated sequel on course for a possible five-day debut in the $120 million range, marking another major win for Universal's animation efforts.
Lone Ranger -- headlined by Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer -- may only reach half of that unless business picks up considerably. The film is pacing to gross $11 million to $12 million on Wednesday for a five-day opening in the $50 million to $60 million range. That's an especially troubling number considering the film's price tag, and means Lone Ranger will have to do especially big business internationally, as well has have strong legs domestically.
 
olinecoach61

olinecoach61

Well-Known Member
I was hoping Lone Ranger did well too but I think this is going to flop. Early numbers are not good. Anyone else find the casting of depp as tonto odd? Just seems like a strange fit to me.
 
Wilt Dasney

Wilt Dasney

Well-Known Member
Saw it last night.

Not going to spend too much time on my critiques, because they're basically the generic critiques of today's Hollywood: Too bloated, too focused on budget-expanding action scenes where a lot (and paradoxically nothing) happens. It's a summer action flick...you know what you're signing up for.

In some ways, it's clear that they struggled to make this story relevant to a modern audience. I came away thinking maybe The Lone Ranger is just too old as a property to be done in a way that feels fresh. The themes that made him so compelling in his own time (e.g., man in a mask) are so familiar today that they just can't have the same impact. Characters like the LR and Zorro are victims of their own success in a way: They were so successful in changing how the culture depicts heroes that it's impossible for a kid seeing them today to realize how revolutionary they were.

What I did like: The first half hour or so does a good job setting things up, and toward the end, the William Tell Overture kicks into full gear, and everything feels right. I was never old enough to watch the Lone Ranger in his heyday (and I doubt many of you were either) but that climax made me feel like a kid. Something in the Lone Ranger touches the same part of me that's loved Batman since I was a teenager, and for that if nothing else, I walked out smiling.

If you just want to touch something simple inside yourself and believe in a good guy for a few minutes (once you've seen him spend a couple hours picking through all his requisite angst and self-doubt, that is), go see it.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Pretty sure this thing is going to tank.
After Lone Ranger and John Carter of Mars (and more distantly, Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer's Apprentice) will Disney begin to rethink its strategy of producing special effects Behemoths?
I mean, Star Wars 7 will be a sure thing, but other than Tron 2 and the Pirates movies modern Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to producing these things.
 
Z

Zman-ks

Well-Known Member
Tramp&TheLady said:
Saw it last night and was very pleasantly surprised. Depp at his finest.
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I agree Depp is awesome in it...
 
lazyboy97o

lazyboy97o

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
Pretty sure this thing is going to tank.
After Lone Ranger and John Carter of Mars (and more distantly, Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer's Apprentice) will Disney begin to rethink its strategy of producing special effects Behemoths?
I mean, Star Wars 7 will be a sure thing, but other than Tron 2 and the Pirates movies modern Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to producing these things.
Click to expand...
It's the entire strategy of only doing big budget films. Bigger and bigger just isn't sustainable. And the field is getting crowded because it's being applied to Disney's other labels and other studios are following the same strategy.
 
fractal

fractal

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Bairstow said:
Pretty sure this thing is going to tank.
After Lone Ranger and John Carter of Mars (and more distantly, Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer's Apprentice) will Disney begin to rethink its strategy of producing special effects Behemoths?
I mean, Star Wars 7 will be a sure thing, but other than Tron 2 and the Pirates movies modern Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to producing these things.
Click to expand...


I hate to say this, but the first thing they should do is release these type of films under a different label. If you slap a "Disney" label on a big budget action film, the fan boys of that genre are immediately turned off. PotC was able to overcome that ( maybe because it appealed to a larger crowd ), the others could not.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
Perhaps the plan is to also run the Disney logo in front of the Star Wars sequels and the next Avengers movie to build teen-boy credibility for the company.
 
P

pheneix

Well-Known Member
July 4 holiday was cancelled for a lot of people because this movie is doing so poorly. While this doesn't spell financial ruin for WDS (in fact it's probably handy to have a nice write off or two against their IM3 profits), WDS did get shamed by an animated feature film produced by Universal Studios on the same weekend that WDS released a Bruckheimer/Depp tent pole movie.

Blood pressures be rising in Burbank today.
 
GrumpyFan

GrumpyFan

Well-Known Member
Bairstow said:
Pretty sure this thing is going to tank.
After Lone Ranger and John Carter of Mars (and more distantly, Prince of Persia and The Sorcerer's Apprentice) will Disney begin to rethink its strategy of producing special effects Behemoths?
I mean, Star Wars 7 will be a sure thing, but other than Tron 2 and the Pirates movies modern Disney doesn't have the best track record when it comes to producing these things.
Click to expand...

I haven't seen it yet, but I think the big budget "behemoths" you speak of are just the nature of the business, and sometimes when you aim big, you miss big. Disney isn't the only studio who's missed with a film they were hoping to a blockbuster this year. All of the other studios have had failures this year as well. Fox and had a flop earlier this year with Die Hard Another Day, Universal's Oblivion didn't do as well as they hoped, and Sony's After Earth kinda flopped as well, and each of these had big name actors in them.
 
Magenta Panther

Magenta Panther

Well-Known Member
pheneix said:
July 4 holiday was cancelled for a lot of people because this movie is doing so poorly. While this doesn't spell financial ruin for WDS (in fact it's probably handy to have a nice write off or two against their IM3 profits), WDS did get shamed by an animated feature film produced by Universal Studios on the same weekend that WDS released a Bruckheimer/Depp tent pole movie.

Blood pressures be rising in Burbank today.
Click to expand...


"Cancelled"? But why? How is paying people to work on a holiday going to offset "The Lone Ranger"'s losses?

BTW, just got back from seeing "Despicable Me 2". Enjoyable, sweet, light and fun. I have to say that the little girls in those "Despicable" movies, especially little Edith, are some of the most endearing cartoon kids since Boo. The only issues I had with DM2 were:

SPOILERS


1. That scene where Gru's date gets the whole living crap bashed out of her. And for what? Woman and egregious slapstick don't mix well when it comes to humor. There was NO laughter in the audience during that scene, just fidgeting. Sure, the girl was all right, she showed up at the wedding later, but the merciless flinging and slapping around was very overdone and uncomfortable to watch.

2. Overall, the movie didn't have the emotional punch of the first - which is typical, I realize, of sequels. DO watch this movie with slightly lower expectations, and you'll have fun.
 
AndyMagic

AndyMagic

Well-Known Member
GrumpyFan said:
I haven't seen it yet, but I think the big budget "behemoths" you speak of are just the nature of the business, and sometimes when you aim big, you miss big. Disney isn't the only studio who's missed with a film they were hoping to a blockbuster this year. All of the other studios have had failures this year as well. Fox and had a flop earlier this year with Die Hard Another Day, Universal's Oblivion didn't do as well as they hoped, and Sony's After Earth kinda flopped as well, and each of these had big name actors in them.
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Most studios do indeed bet big on a select number of films and inevitably one or two will miss the mark big time but aside from maybe After Earth, no other studio release so far this year posted a monstrous loss like the one Disney will for the Lone Ranger. The other two examples you mentioned don't come close to being good apples to apples comparisons. Oblivion was a dark sci-fi film that was never meant to connect to a wide audience the way Lone Ranger was. The budget for Oblivion came in around $120 million and the 5th Die Hard cost Fox about $90 million. Both those films grossed around $300 million total. Not spectacular by any means but not something that would get an executive fired. Lone Ranger's $215 million budget is in line with The Avengers and Iron Man 3. Good upper level executives should indeed take risks but no sane person at the studio truly thought this was a good idea. Lone Ranger was given the greenlight after the comparatively inexpensive Cowboys & Aliens disappointed at the box office in 2011 and then a year later, Disney didn't trim back the budget after John Carter bombed. It was a truly foolish decision and one that basically erases a good portion of the monster Marvel cash that flowed heavily earlier in the year. Beyond the bloated budget, excessive running time, and difficult-to-market western premise, they scheduled it along side Universal's Despicable Me 2 which is drawing not only children but also the young adults they thought would have flocked to Lone Ranger. It's a disaster of epic proportions (pun intended) and I'm assuming heads will roll. The question is going to be which heads.

It's worth noting that Universal's DM2 was a sure-fire hit from the moment it went into production and I'm sure it was tempting for them to write a blank check for the film but instead, Universal told their animation house to make it for about $80 million bucks. Every penny is shown on the screen and nothing is wasted. The film will be in the green by the end of the 5-day weekend. This holiday weekend was basically an example of two very different approaches to studio filmmaking. The results speak for themselves.
 
Bairstow

Bairstow

Well-Known Member
AndyMagic said:
Most studios do indeed bet big on a select number of films and inevitably one or two will miss the mark big time but aside from maybe After Earth, no other studio release so far this year posted a monstrous loss like the one Disney will for the Lone Ranger.
Click to expand...

White House Down might come close, considering that it doesn't have much international appeal and Lone Ranger might.
 

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