With celebrities Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Hans Zimmer, why was ‘The Lone Ranger’ so much of a box office ‘flop’?
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The Lone Ranger arrived in cinemas on July
3rd 2013 in the UK, starring Johnny Depp as Tonto, a spirit warrior,
and Armie Hammer as John Reid, the protagonist of the plot. Based on a
children’s story in the early 50’s, Disney wanted to revive The Lone Ranger by creating a modern day
motion picture equivalent. First appearing on radio in 1933, The Lone Ranger is now an icon of
American Culture. Centred around a super-hero who catches ‘bad guys’ and with
celebrities including Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter, as well as the
music being composed by Hans Zimmer, many avid film watchers were expecting an
‘all-round feel good’ film. However, this film was not at all what it made out
to be, in fact, it was a ‘Box Office flop.’
‘Wallet Exhaustion’ was, in my view, the
biggest problem for this failure. Too many box office hits were arriving on
screen around the time of The Lone Ranger’s
release, such as; Man of Steel, Despicable Me 2 and of course Monsters
University. This meant that many film-goers had spent all their pocket money on
these more enjoyable and more interesting films, therefore not feeling the need
to spend even more money to watch something that wasn’t all that appealing.
To
initially find a film appealing, the trailer has to be informative, exciting
and stimulating. This was not the case for ‘The
Lone Ranger.’ The bland colour palette throughout the film is a sharp
contrast to action films that the public are accustomed to nowadays. They are familiar
with bright, strong and bold colours that depict so many action scenes today rather
than the dull, cloudy and lifeless colour that The Lone Ranger portrays.
Advertising plays a key role in
the success of any film, if the movie is not advertised at all, the public will
not hear about it consequently not going to see it. This is an exaggerated
example of what could happen, however the rule still applies. The Lone Ranger’s trailer was vague and
completely unfitting to the plot. It focused more on transport and inventions
of trains than an actual hero who protects society. Yes, the overall preview looked
professional and the narration was apt, but humans statistically remember twice
the amount more when watching something rather than listening to a particular
piece of information. Similarly the main
poster’s composition was careless. John Reid, the main character is positioned offset to the centre frame, and more
weight is given over to Tonto, his sidekick. This was a poor move by the
artists to try and get more people to watch the film by misleading them into
thinking that Hollywood star, Johnny Depp is the protagonist. It made the
film-crew look desperate from the very start.
On the whole, The Lone Ranger as himself has been such
a worldwide success it has even made itself a part of the American culture, immensely contrasted with The Lone Ranger motion picture.
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