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.