Lone Ranger = John Carter

[TheRustyScupper]

1) Disney lands another "bomb" of a movie.
2) Everyone KNOWS the Lone Ranger story.
3) Why did Disney think they could re-write it?
4) Even with Johnny Dep?
5) Critics think the movie will lose $100+ million.
6) Just because it's Disney, doesn't mean
. . . "if they make it the public will come"
7) Still needs to be a good flick.


NOTE: Even U.S.A. losers can make up the loss in worldwide
release. But, the worldwide market doesn't jump on Westerns
like they do for science fiction.

 

[Yellowstonetim]

1) Disney lands another "bomb" of a movie.
2) Everyone KNOWS the Lone Ranger story.
3) Why did Disney think they could re-write it?
4) Even with Johnny Dep?
5) Critics think the movie will lose $100+ million.
6) Just because it's Disney, doesn't mean
. . . "if they make it the public will come"
7) Still needs to be a good flick.


NOTE: Even U.S.A. losers can make up the loss in worldwide
release. But, the worldwide market doesn't jump on Westerns
like they do for science fiction.

No it isn't going to be that bad. Lone Ranger has earned $30 Million before we even got to the weekend. It will earn 50 or 60 Million. It is getting very good ratings from viewers so will have good word of mouth. It will not be a big hit, westerns rarely are, but it will not be a John Carter, either.

Don't panic yet, lets wait and see how the first weekend does. It is only in comparison with DM2 that it appears so bad.

 

[OKW Lover]

I don't think it will be as bad as John Carter but it certainly isn't good. Rotten Tomatoes had it at only 24% liking it. I'd say thats a little low.

I didn't care for it myself. I thought it was a mess of 3-stooges and violence, without enough "William Tell Overture".

 

[323sarg]

Went and seen it this weekend. Think Disney tried to make the Lone Ranger too wholesome and the movie seemed to drag. Could have been awesome if they would have added a little more mortality to him. Not advocating violence but you can't have an action movie and plot as such and you main characters refuse to use guns to shoot people. While the rest of the world has them and shooting at you.

At one point it was almost like " come on" with the wholesome type approach

 

[Brer Chump]

No it isn't going to be that bad. Lone Ranger has earned $30 Million before we even got to the weekend. It will earn 50 or 60 Million. It is getting very good ratings from viewers so will have good word of mouth. It will not be a big hit, westerns rarely are, but it will not be a John Carter, either.

Don't panic yet, lets wait and see how the first weekend does. It is only in comparison with DM2 that it appears so bad.

Actually it looks worse when you compare gross to budget + marketing. LR has brought in just shy of $50 million after the long weekend compared its $215 million production budget, which reports say it went over. Then there is marketing costs it needs to recoup. Hollywood Insider is predicting a $150 million loss. $50 million less than John Carter.

The John Carter analogy is a fair comparison.

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disneys-lone-ranger-could-lead-581503

 

[pilferk]

Saw it (because we had free tickets).

Reminded me a lot (and not in a good way) of Wild, Wild, West.

 

[TJSkinner]

I thought it was a little corny. Everyone knows the Lone Ranger from TV and Movies. But a non violent Lone Ranger who refuses to even wear a gun. In the old west, especially someone raised there would know the necessity for wearing a gun. Plus since when does Texas have spirals and decorative mesas and buttes outside of Palo Duro Canyon. Disney should know that if you say it's Texas, do not film in Monument Valley.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

this movie was plagued by replacements and rewrites in production...it was rumored that johnny depp was kinda pushing it through into production.

Maybe disney will learn...when this happens, the film is DOA. It's not going to have major story/production problems and gross 500 million. not gonna happen.

it does parallel john carter in that respect.

Concentrate on making a good star wars, you fools...that is 75% of your future profit if done right.

 

[Spacedog1975]

Concentrate on making a good star wars, you fools...that is 75% of your future profit if done right.

A wee bit of an overstatement.

They do need to make sure Star Wars is done well. There has already been one trilogy that wasn't received well by fans. Having new directors and writers on the property will help tremendously.

Disney definitely needs to develop additional properties though.

 

[lockedoutlogic]

A wee bit of an overstatement.

They do need to make sure Star Wars is done well. There has already been one trilogy that wasn't received well by fans. Having new directors and writers on the property will help tremendously.

Disney definitely needs to develop additional properties though.

actually no...


they have their marvel properties and they have pixar to fill the coffers...now they bought star wars to do the same.

I know that they have to make more movies than that...no question...but their attempts to come up with the "next great franchise" have been not successful....carter, prince of persia, etc. pirates is somewhat of a surprise cash cow that went off the rails a little and narnia has done fairly well...

but star wars is where the money can be. it was number one in 11 of 12 on licensing rights over the last 12 years....and the one time it wasn't it was #2 to another disney property.
That was WITH the terrible movies in play.

that thing is an international cash cow...and disney's approach should be doing everything possible to make it a complete succes (like...oscar consideration...if possible). a "good enough" action flick would be a huge mistake. that works for the marvel properties...but would be a tremendous miscalculation here.

 

[skier_pete]

I haven't seen it yet, but was looking forward to it. Johnny Depp and Gore Verbinski already made a great western together - in RANGO. Clearly they wanted to do live action. I still might go see it, but the reviews seem to range from "pretty good" to "meh" - not too many saying TERRIBLE. However, I wonder if it suffered from John Carter's "need to please everyone" ends up "pleasing no-one".

Ah well, not every movie can be great.

 

[DizCaptain]

I liked John Carter... It was a decent film with an old-school feel. Marketing was its downfall in my opinion. I haven't seen Lone Ranger yet but a lot of what I hear points at a bad plot mixed with a 2.5 hour runtime. I'll still give it a shot though.

 

[HM]

I liked John Carter... It was a decent film with an old-school feel. Marketing was its downfall in my opinion. I haven't seen Lone Ranger yet but a lot of what I hear points at a bad plot mixed with a 2.5 hour runtime. I'll still give it a shot though.

I totally agree. I didn't see John Carter in the theaters. The trailers did not interest me. When it came out in Redbox, we rented it. (Twice now.) The story was so different from what we had been lead to believe by the adverts. Everyone in our family (older teens and adults) liked it. Not a great movie, but an interesting one.

And it made me want to read the book, which was pretty terrible....that John Carter was one guy who really had a major ego. I was glad it was short and that ego didn't come through in the movie storyline.

We've decided that Lone Ranger is also going to be a Redbox rental.

 

[Tinkerboy00]

I haven't seen either but both look boring to me.

Im a little upset by the choice of Johnny Depp as Tonto. My problem with him is every role he plays seems like the same character/person to me: Willa Wonka, Mad Hatter, Jack Sparrow etc. I mean, Im not gonna lie, he does them all very well, and I love them all and I love him.

But just not interested in this movie at all. Mabye on demand

 

[TJSkinner]

Do not get me wrong. This movie had some very dramatic moments, great action scenes, but a horse even a spirit horse that can jump up into a tree and onto buildings, just a little hard to believe. Plus there is missing that chemistry between Tonto and the Lone Ranger. hard to believe they are buddies. Armie Hammer hammed it up a bit much. The scene where Tonto argues with the horse, great scene. Just wish there had been more great scenes. Still I will watch it again when it comes out on Blu-ray.

 

[AngelicFruitcake]

Hmm....I quite enjoyed John Carter, as did my whole family. While I feel marketing is partially to blame, (didn't Borroughs fans piece together their own trailer because they felt it better represented the plot and they wanted it to succeed?) but also, as more of a movie fan than Disney fan, I place blame on the media, who were far too eager to label it a failure. The film never really had a chance.

Which makes me kinda sad because I'd love to see other books adapted.

This is also likely to hamper The Lone Ranger. Personally I'm over Johnny Depp and his acting like the same character in every movie, and I wonder if there isn't some media fatigue with that as well. They seem a little too elated to call it a disaster.

That said, I'm still willing to give the movie a chance. Shoot, I just saw After Earth and it wasn't nearly as bad as the reviews would have you believe.

 

[Q-man]

I didn't think it was possible to make a movie that Depp couldn't save in some way. Lone Ranger proved me wrong.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I am a it surprised why a few are making a fuss over the Lone Ranger...........it like Carter may not have been popular or a success. My own opinion is Depp never was a really good actor, he has had many flops, maybe if he got off the drugs?

It certainty is not a problem for Disney!

For the year so far on Iron man 3 and Monster U they have earned over 1.6 B, yes Billion.

One problem movie is not the end of the world, in fact their shock is going up.

AKK

 

[dwheaton]

I haven't seen Lone Ranger but think the marketing was bad for it too. The commercials just focused on Depp and didn't make it seem like an exciting movie. I don't think The Lone Ranger name has the same draw that Disney expected.

It's hardly catastrophic to the company given some of their other successes, but it's obviously a disappointment for them. The problem was giving Gore Verbinski free reign to let the budget go crazy (i.e., build his own train) because he had a hit with Pirates. Even when they shut down the production and forced the budget down, it was still over $200 million before you consider marketing.

We've seen a good amount of big budget movies fail this summer due to bad word of mouth. There are so many summer releases that many of us just focus on the most interesting ones.

 

[Tonka's Skipper]

I haven't seen Lone Ranger but think the marketing was bad for it too. The commercials just focused on Depp and didn't make it seem like an exciting movie. I don't think The Lone Ranger name has the same draw that Disney expected.

It's hardly catastrophic to the company given some of their other successes, but it's obviously a disappointment for them. The problem was giving Gore Verbinski free reign to let the budget go crazy (i.e., build his own train) because he had a hit with Pirates. Even when they shut down the production and forced the budget down, it was still over $200 million before you consider marketing.

We've seen a good amount of big budget movies fail this summer due to bad word of mouth. There are so many summer releases that many of us just focus on the most interesting ones.

Excellent post!

AKK