The Lone Ranger

The Lone Ranger is a 2013 remake of the American Western action films. It marks the first theatrical film featuring the Lone Ranger and Tonto characters in more than 30 years.

          Filming suffered with budget and production problems, which at one point, led to a premature cancellation of the film. The film was released in the United States on the 4^th of July 2013. the film received mixed reviews, however negative reviews dominated.

          It was seen as a huge disappointment, grossing 243 million dollars, despite an estimated 225 million dollar budget.

          On the 12^th August 2011, Disney announced that production on The Lone Ranger would be delayed due to budget concerns. After addressing the project’s production problems in October 2011, Disney confirmed that the film was back on track after the budget was reworked to give the studio a chance to recoup its costs. Initially, filming was reported to begin on the 6^th February 2012 and the film was given a release date of the 31^st may 2013 which subsequently was moved to the 4^th of July.

          As a result of the production setbacks, The Lone Ranger faced numerous changes in release dates. After underperforming during its opening weekend, the film was characterised by numerous media sources as a box office flop.

          Compared to Despicable Me 2, a film that opened the same weekend to 142 million dollars on a 76 million dollar budget, The Lone Ranger made just under a third of that, 48.9 million dollars, and had more than three times the budget, 215 million dollars.

          Along with the production and budgeting problems, the film also received generally unfavourable reviews.

Called “a jumbled botch that is so confused in its purpose and so charmless in its effect that it must be seen to be believed, but better yet, no. Don’t see it. Don’t believe it” and also described as a “bloated, misshapen mess. A stillborn franchise loaded with metaphors for its feeble attempts to amuse, excite and entertain.”

          The specific reason for the flop of The Lone Ranger cannot be determined, however the production, planning, timing, budgeting and critics opinions all factor in to why this film is considered by many, a box office failure.

In my opinion, the costs of the film are the largest factor as to why this film was not as successful as planned. Although the film made a large turnover, the costs of the production outweighed the cost made. If, like other films released at a similar time, The Lone Ranger had budgeted better then perhaps it wouldn’t have been as scrutinised by not only the critics, but the public as well.

Although the majority of people consider this film to be a ‘flop’ and ‘failure’, The Lone Ranger has definitely not been a disappointment to all, which is clear by the amount the film made, regardless of the overall costs.