The Lone Ranger had a fairly troubled production, being cancelled shortly after being put into production by Disney because of the film’s budget and only saved because Jerry Bruckheimer and company were able to reduce the film’s budget by enough to get it greenlit one more time. Perhaps that was for naught as the film had a fairly disastrous opening in light of its $200 million plus production budget, at least domestically.
You can read our own Travis Leamons’ review right here and let us know if you’ve a) seen the film and b) your thoughts on it below.
Deadline is reporting that Despicable Me 2 opened to a staggering $34 million, projecting out to well over $100 million for the extended holiday weekend. Toss in the global numbers and it’s well over $100 million already against a reported budget of under $80 million.
The Lone Ranger, headlined by Depp and Armie Hammer, opened to $9.6 million Wednesday and is projected to fall well underneath $50 million for the weekend. The film looks to be counting on foreign box office receipts to get into the black but history has shown that big budget westerns have a hard time finding an audience overseas. The last film with a similar topic, Cowboys & Aliens, made more in America ($100 million) than it did overseas ($74 million), so there’s historical precedent for The Lone Ranger being a massive flop for 2013 along the same lines that John Carter was a short while ago. Jonah Hex had similarly bad numbers, making more domestically than it did internationally, as well.
In comparison the latest Kevin Hart stand up comedy film, Let Me Explain, is in a 1/4 of the theatres of The Lone Ranger and opened at about half the amount that Disney’s film did at $4.7 million. Here’s the opening day numbers from yesterday.
1. Despicable Me 2 (Universal) NEW [Runs 3,957]
Wednesday $34.3M
2. The Lone Ranger (Disney) NEW [Runs 3,904]
Wednesday $9.6M
3. Monsters University (Pixar/Disney) Week 2 [Runs 4,004]
Wednesday $5.4M
4. The Heat (Fox) Week 1 [Runs 3,181]
Wednesday $5.2M
5. Kevin Hart: Let Me Explain (Summit/Lionsgate) NEW [Runs 876]
Wednesday $4.7M
