Why 'The Lone Ranger' Was Considered a Box-Office Failure

The Lone Ranger is considered a box office failure because, even though so far it has grossed over $239 million, high production costs meant that it would’ve needed to be extremely successful in a lot of countries to make a big profit. Although $239 million would usually be classed as successful, The New York Times estimated that the film cost $375 million dollars to produce and advertise, which left the film with a $160-190 million loss. Not including marketing costs, the film has a net loss of $109 million – $134 million, which is thought to be one of the biggest losses in film history.

Secondly, the film may have been a failure as Westerns aren’t as popular as they were in the past, with recent Western films such as Wild Wild West, Jonah Hex, and Cowboys & Aliens all failing at the box office and earning significantly less than expected. This means that the film could’ve sold fewer tickets than other films of more popular genres.

Also, The Lone Ranger is the first film to feature the titular character in 32 years, and is based upon a radio show which first aired in 1933. This suggests that most of the character’s fans would have been much older than the Disney’s typical target audience of children. Many children probably hadn’t even heard of the Lone Ranger before promotional material for the film (such as toys, costumes and adverts; all of which are aimed primarily at children) began appearing, so they probably wouldn’t have shown a lot of interest in seeing the film without a former interest in cowboys. 68% of tickets were bought by people over 25, and nearly 25% of ticket buyers were over 50, which shows that Disney should’ve marketed the film towards adults more than children. If they had not excluded nearly 70% of their main viewing audience from their primary advertising, they probably could’ve sold more tickets and therefore earned more at the box office.

The Lone Ranger’s failure can also be accounted to how it was overshadowed by several other big films opening around the same time. These films provided steep competition for The Lone Ranger as most parents would’ve only taken children to see one or two films, and other films were more popular choices due to the popular characters and genres. Superman film Man of Steel also featured a previously pre-established character, but had the support of the current superhero craze to acquire viewers. Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 (which opened in the same weekend and made triple the amount that The Lone Ranger did, despite having only a third of the budget) focused on the same target audience but were marketed better and already popular with children due to them being sequels of two very successful children’s films. This put a large hype around both films, which The Lone Ranger didn’t have.

Finally, the production on the film was briefly shut down in 2011 due to budget concerns. This led to critics already having a negative view on the film, and before it was even realised they had begun to give it bad reviews. They also compared it to John Carter, Disney’s 2012 film which also had a very large budget, but was a high profile box office failure. These reviews could’ve put off many people who would’ve otherwise considered watching the film.