WTF Happened to The Lone Ranger?

Walt Disney Studios has had a pretty abysmal year at the international box office in 2023. Between Ant-Man 3, The Little Mermaid, Elemental, Indiana Jones 5, and perhaps most disappointing, The Marvels, the typically successful movie studio has lost an ungodly amount of money by producing overly expensive feature films that failed to resonate among the masses and earn back their financial investments. If the studio isn’t careful and the trend continues, Disney could break another record for the all-time biggest box-office bomb on record.

Speaking of which, what would your answer be if you had to guess what Disney’s most notorious financial flop of all time? Well, up until recently, the correct response would have been John Carter, the disastrous 2012 adaptation of Edgar Rice Boroughs’ A Princes of Mars. However, after tallying up the receipts in 2023, Disney’s most infamous box office failure now belongs to The Lone Ranger, directed by Gore Verbinski and starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer. Of course, losing hundreds of millions of dollars is one thing the studio must account for, overcoming the reputational hit of one of the most problematic productions in Hollywood history is quite another. Yet, while much of the public focus regarding The Lone Ranger has to do with the epic commercial failure and scathing critical response, many people overlook how damned and doomed the making of the movie was in 2011-2012. Between the production delays stemming from the budget spiraling out of control and the outbreak of chicken pox to weather problems and dangerous wildfires to Depp’s near-fatal horseback injury to the literal death of a crew member on set, the tragedy of the film extends far beyond the economics. Saddle up Kemosabe, it’s time to find out WTF Happened to the Lone Ranger ahead!

#theloneranger #JohnnyDepp #wtfhappenedtothismovie

[LukeLovesRose]

Unpopular opinion: The Lone Ranger is a very good and underrated Western.

Even Tarantino loved this movie and I can see why. It's too bad that so many other critics and moviegoers couldnt.

I actually felt like cheering when that Lone Ranger theme started playing.

[wstine]

I will say the climax on the train was the best part of the movie. The stunts, fights, and horse riding to the Lone Ranger theme was great.

[MorbiusTheMenace]

Unpopulair oppinion: I enjoyed this movie a lot and wanted another one

[dennissmith]

It’s not that bad. The final train chase was really good.

[robertstephenson]

I'll be honest. I really liked this movie. Its a stylish, imaginative, funny, action adventure that the whole family can enjoy, and there are precious few movies you can say that about these days. Its not perfect, but neither is it anywhere near as bad as its industry reputation would have you believe. I think legends build up around some movies like this, such that if you wish to be considered a movie aficionado, you're supposed not to like it. All I can say is that I watched it with a bunch of kids who knew nothing about its reputation, or its troubled production, and we all loved it.

[wstine]

My dad worked at The Village Tinsmith company and they provided the cantines, lamps, lanterns, and other tin items for the movie.

[chasehedges]

John Carter, Atlantis The Lost Empire and Treasure Planet are underrated

[redbearddan]

It's ironic how Disney bombed with The Lone Ranger that wasn't a part of big cinematic IP in 2013, and 10 years later Disney bombed with several movies that WERE a part of big cinematic IPs in 2023 (Indy 5, The Marvels, Ant-Man, etc.) which the studio relied on for many years.

[godmaentertainment]

John Ford just whispered in my ear "It's an F'n Western! The beauty of making a Western, is that a modest budget doesn't compromise the story...you're in the middle of no where."

[primeholyassasin]

Saw it on DVD a while back. I don’t think it’s the worst movie ever made, nor a masterpiece. But it is one of the more visually lavish westerns I’ve seen, and some of those train sequences are impressive. It certainly has some visual ambition at least.

[peterbumper]

This movie could not decide if it was a comedy or a drama. It relied too heavily on Depp being a native Jack Sparrow

[seanmillette]

Hire and fly in a yo-yo champ to teach an actor how to do a trick. Later use a close-up of the trick, making it so it could have been done by the yo-yo champ to begin with.

[chasehedges]

Doug Walker in his Disneycember review said it best: “It's just trying to Pirates of The Caribbean in the Wild West.”

[alaricboyle-poirier]

Wow, based on the images shown in this recap, this movie looks really well shot, edited, stunts look great and it looks packed with great action. On my list.

[toolman]

I mostly liked this movie, but thought Johnny Depp was playing Jack Sparrows Indian cousin. And a lot of people were upset that Tonto should have been played by a native American

[alberto]

This a well known fact, The Lobe Ranger is not only underrrated but it’s actually good.

[EstuardoFuller]

So I didn’t come out of this movie saying “Gosh, I’d liked it better if it hadn’t gone over budget”. The silly story line, making the Lone Ranger a goofball made it bad. Seemed there was a stretch back then to remake shows/movies as parodies. Charlie’s Angels, Starsky & Hutch (RIP David Soul), CHIPS which were originally a bit campy but not buffoonery. The Lone Ranger and Tonto were
crime fighters with a light touch of humor. But the ‘creatives’ either didn’t watch and/or understand that concept and paired with the need to keep milking the Pirates theme, and created this mess. The visuals were great. Everything you’d like to see in a Western. It was a failure of writing, vision, and understanding of the characters. A good story carries across generations and could have been a great way to retell an old tale. So sad it was a miss.

[thealcohologist]

I appreciate a director who does practical over cgi

[gijanetexas]

They tried to make the Lone Ranger like Will Smith’s Wild, Wild, West. I didn’t think Lone Ranger was bad, just very campy. Maybe people expected a serious Lone Ranger of the past and not camp.

[CHEERSMEOW]

Turns out that this lone ranger really wanted to eat tonto. 😹😹😹