5) The Lone Ranger
This is a weird one, because The Lone Ranger actually ended up on quite a few people’s year end best-ofs. Quentin Tarantino has repeatedly cited the film as one of his favourite of the year, and since it released a lot of moviegoers have argued against the harsh critical reception it received. Unfortunately, contrarian goodwill doesn’t usually translate into profits, and this case was no different.
The key strategy behind the release of The Lone Ranger seemed to be “throw enough money at something, and it will eventually turn a profit.” Disney put $225 million into the project, which was beset by an extremely long production time and multiple shutdowns for fear of the budget spiralling out of control. The company actually wanted to shelve the entire thing at one point, so low were expectations for the film.
The Lone Ranger was mauled on its US release, but was more warmly received overseas. There’s a lot of affection for The Lone Ranger property in the UK, where most people’s parents watched the TV series as a youngster, which may explain why it went down a little better there. There was a huge detracting factor in the UK though – nobody knows who Armie Hammer is. Nobody in the whole of the UK, at all.
The film had a great trailer, which outlined the train scene in a lot of detail, but ultimately it didn’t add up to much. The Lone Ranger took $260 million at the worldwide box office, but all told is likely to have lost $190 million in total. That makes the film the biggest flop of the year – whoda thunk?
It’s been a great year for flops, as I’m sure you’ll agree, but do you have any other suggestions for your favourite flops? Leave your comments below.