With successful blockbusters such as Iron Man 3, Man of Steel, and Star Trek Into Darkness, it was bound to happen this summer. The Lone Ranger opens in theaters today and is quickly looking like it will be the mega-flop of the summer.
Just last year Disney had another $200 million dollar bomb with John Carter. There had even been rumors during the The Lone Ranger’s early production problems that it was going to be the “John Carter” of 2013.
After Disney wrote off $200 million in 2012 because of John Carter’s massive failures at the box office, they fired Rich Ross, the chairman of Walt Disney’s film unit.
There’s even been talk from business insiders that Disney’s stock is going to take a hit next week prior to The Lone Ranger’s opening weekend box office numbers being released.
Certainly an oddity during a time when the studio has enjoyed the massive success of The Avengers, which pulled in a total of $1.5 billion and more recently with Iron Man 3 and its $1.2 billion box office take.
What’s interesting is we haven’t seen Disney bragging about tracking numbers like we saw with Iron Man 3, where they were touting an expected $150+ million dollar opening weekend. Disney most likely knows what’s coming and is keeping quiet in hopes that mass advertising can salvage the film in foreign markets.
Critics are being absolutely brutal to The Lone Ranger, and it currently holds a 25% on film review aggregate RottenTomatoes. The last time we saw a film that low was Will Smith’s After Earth, which absolutely bombed, opening third and finally resting at a critic rating of 11%.
The silver bullet here is that Johnny Depp pulls immense weight with foreign markets. In his last film with Jerry Bruckheimer, The Lone Ranger’s producer, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 only pulled in $200 million in the U.S., but went on to take in $800 million in foreign markets despite being critically panned.
This could be where Disney saves face. We imagine they’re doubling their advertising efforts as we speak outside the U.S. where reviews don’t appear to be as influential. Depp’s latest Pirates film holds a 33% RottenTomatoes rating, but was still a mega success due to its foreign box office take.
After all, reviews aren’t everything, and with two solid leading men, a great director, and a producer who has become a household name, The Lone Ranger could somehow pull out a financial victory here. It’s an incredibly long shot though, and we aren’t betting on it.
There’s probably not a great deal of hope from Disney right now, but with Johnny Depp’s box office magic, he’ll be the deciding factor on whether The Lone Ranger succeeds, or causes Disney to take yet another $200+ million dollar box office bath.