Why ‘The Lone Ranger’ was considered a box-office failure.

Cowboy films were very popular in the 50’s and the 60’s but they slowly went out of fashion so people were less interested in seeing this film for that exact reason. If you were to think of Western films you would probably think of an old film as they were so popular a long time ago, so people believe that old themes of films should no longer be produced.

The overall colour of the film was considered as ‘bland’. Lots of bright colour in a film will enthrall the viewers and they will be fascinated by it. However, The Lone Ranger featured very little colour and throughout the film it looked quite washed out. Other Disney films such as Avatar and Alice in Wonderland feature many colours, in a wide range of scenes and this ultimately fascinated and drew the audience in. Colour brings a film to life and makes the audience feel more involved in the film so when a film has little colour, the audience will soon become uninterested in the viewing.     

The rest of the world seems not as interested in old American culture involving cowboys as Americans are. So when a character such as the Lone Ranger is introduced to other continents, they’re not sharing the same interest as Americans. As The Lone Ranger was a TV series in the 40’s and 50’s, Americans have an advantage of already knowing certain things about the character and have already been introduced to him in one way or another. However, people from other parts of the world lack that initial introduction and would not be as interested to see a film remake of a TV show they were never, as a country, introduced to. 

The film came out at the wrong time. Over the summer period, big films such as Man of Steel Monsters University White House Down, and Despicable Me 2 all came out so by the beginning of July when The Lone Ranger came out, regular movie goers felt as if they’d spent too much on films and as it’s not a film that people were particularly waiting in anticipation for, very little people bothered to go and see it. 

Johnny Depp is no longer the guaranteed money maker as he used to be. A lot of people used to go and see films he was cast in, purely because he was cast in it, but his hay day of being an attraction seems to be majority over now and film makers are not getting the audience they had hoped for when casting him. Other Disney films such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Alice in Wonderland had cast Johnny Depp and they were great hits. Assumingly Disney’s assigned casting crew to The Lone Ranger saw great potential in the film by casting Johnny Depp but were sorely mistaken as he no longer draws in the crowds he once used to. 

My favourite film this summer: Kiss Ass 2.

Kiss Ass 2 is the sequel of 2010’s Kiss ass which was a huge success and appealed to teens around the world.  It’s a comedy/action film which features real life superheroes and Dave ‘Kick Ass’ who is an aspiring superhero.
 Looking back to the beginning of superhero films, they were done for comedy aspects and they featured a very comic book aspect to them with the onomatopoeia on screen. However, recently with the trend of the many remakes of Marvel and DC films, they’ve lost the comedic aspect and they’re all very deep, dark, serious and meaningful. Kick Ass, however sets back and focuses on the comedic aspect of superheroes and the film mocks the seriousness of The Avengers and The Justice League of America by creating their own league ‘Justice Forever’  especially with the character ‘Colonel stars and stripes’.
I find this film is very relatable to its target audience in many ways. The superheroes are ordinary people but fulfil their childhood dream to be a superhero which is common dream amongst many children. It features the typical ‘goodie’ and ‘baddie’ however the baddie has embarrassing hamartia which is comically controversial as the baddies are generally more powerful and can initially overrule the goodies.
It features an important lesson on being yourself and sticking to your true character. Mindy/Hit Girl gives up her role of being Hit Girl to become a normal teenage girl who has friends and goes to sleepover etc. However, this proves bad as she is humiliated on her first date which ultimately leads to her taking up her role again as hit girl. This moral is portrayed in an extreme and unrealistic way but is relatable to teenagers as many teenagers try to be someone they’re not.
 Another important lesson this film teaches is that if you’re destined to do or achieve something, with the right amount of effort, you will achieve it. This is an important lesson for teenagers today as it’s somewhat of a motivation for academic work or general personal goals.
This film is full of colour and action which makes it very interesting and appealing to many. The characters are young and the actors have been carefully selected as they have been cast in many other successful comedy films which have appealed to teenagers. As actors are one of the main aspects of a film which appeal to potential viewers so ensuring that these actors have been successful in films with the same target audience is almost in itself a guarantee for success. Aaron Taylor Johnson, for example, featured in a very successful comical coming of age film where he plays quite a popular character, however the contrast of him in Kick Ass 2 being a ‘loser’ and a ‘nerd’ would draw people in as they’re interested to see the actor in a different light.
 In conclusion, this film and the first film are 2 of my favourite films of all time as they take one of my favourite interests, superheroes, and look at them in a different light and what it would be like to be a superhero without supernatural abilities.