12 years ago the most expensive western in history hit theaters. A spectacular western film worth more than 200 million that failed unfairly

The best years of western cinema In terms of collection and public success, they have long been left behind. However, recently both the highest-grossing western of all time and the most expensive in historyand in just a few years of difference. Yesterday we discussed the case of the first, ‘Django Unchained’, and today we talk about the second, the reboot of a mythical saga that suffered a tremendous setback at the box office.

‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ in the west with two controversial protagonists

The western I am referring to is ‘The Lone Ranger’, the latest film version of the famous character created in 1933. A priori it seemed like a safe bet for Disneyan ambitious adventure film that reunited Johnny Depp with the director Verbinski Mountainswith whom the star had already collaborated in the first installments of the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ saga and in another acclaimed western, the animated film ‘Rango’. However, everything went wrong.

It all started when Disney and the director began to clash over the budget, which was dangerously close to $300 million, which almost caused Verbinski to be fired. After the studio stopped production until an agreement was reached, refusing to spend so much on a Western, it was necessary for Depp, Verbinski and the producer Jerry Bruckheimer they accepted lower the salary 20% to keep the film going.

Finally they could not avoid a final cost between 215 and 250 million dollarsaccording to Forbes. The studio wanted to play down the issue by pointing to the lowest figure, but media outlets like Variety pointed to the highest. A difficult figure to recover in cinemas but, in addition, since the press Hollywood critics launched attacks on ‘The Lone Ranger’ before its release and all those rumors of disaster did not help much, reaching the public with an aura of inevitable failure.

Released in theaters on the same day as ‘Despicable Me 2’, ‘Despicable Me 2’, ‘The Lone Ranger’ was unable to reach number 1 at the United States box officesomething that was already understood as the definitive confirmation of failure. The reviews were not good in general (although we have always defended it here) and it did not exactly hold up well at the box office during the following weeks. That led to it only earning 89 million dollars in the US, plus 171 million in the rest of the world.

This very weak figure in cinemas, together with the expenditure of 150 million dollars that Disney invested in the promotional campaign, led to ‘The Lone Ranger’ becoming one of the biggest failures of all time. In fact, it is estimated that the company lost between 160 and 190 million after passing through theaters, a figure that was later reduced with other sources of income (in the United States alone it added another 48 million dollars with its sales in physical format) but still insufficient to recover the strong investment made by Disney.

Jerry Bruckheimer, producer of ‘The Lone Ranger’, commented before its theatrical release that the plan was for it to be the start of a new franchise, like his hit ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’. Obviously, the failure at the box office led to quickly ruled out any possibility of making a sequelsomething that later, after the cancellation of its two protagonists for very different reasons (in fact, Johnny Depp is already beginning to recover his career after winning the trial against Amber Heard), is seen more as a fortunate turn for Disney.

By the way, the big names in the film were quick to point out a culprit outside the team, and of course, they were not going to blame the public. Both Jerry Bruckheimer and Gore Verbinski, Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer They complained a lot about the treatment the film received from the United States press.. A controversy that did not help Disney’s production at all.

Bruckheimer lamented that they focused more on the money spent than on the film itself, while Hammer, now disgraced, highlighted the following:

“Here’s the problem with American critics: They’ve been attacking our movie since we had to stop it the first time. That’s when most critics wrote their initial reviews.”

“They tried to do the same thing with ‘World War Z’ but it didn’t work there, the movie was successful. Instead, they decided to cut the jugular of our movie,” Hammer said.

If you want to recover the western of ‘The Lone Ranger’, a much better movie than what was said at the time (just for that extraordinary final chase on the train it’s worth it), you have it available in the Disney+ catalog.

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