The Lone Ranger success

The 2013 film, The Lone Ranger is an American western action film, produced by Walt Disney and Jerry Bruckheimer. The cast features Hollywood accredited names such as, Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer, Helena Bonham Carter and James Badge Dale.
Budget: The film was inundated with production issues and financial worries, which at one part led to the premature cancellation of the film, with the film grossing a total of $239 million worldwide, against a $225 million production budget, making the profit low in comparison, as the profit amounted to $14 million, with half of that going to the cinemas. The film underperformed in its opening weekend, with many media sources calling it a ‘box office flop’ and comparing it to the film John Carter, which was a big-budgeted Disney film that failed commercially in 2012. In comparison with Despicable Me 2, which opened the same week, The Lone Ranger earned just under a third of the money.
Critics and reviews: Reviews were mostly negative, especially from critics in the US. With comments such as “bland script, bloated length, and blaring action overkill” and “misshapen mess, a stillborn franchise loaded with metaphors for its feeble attempts to amuse, excite and entertain”. Outside of the US, reviews were mixed and positive, with Empire magazine giving the film four stars, finding “real storytelling, well thought-out and beautifully, at times insanely, executed, with excitement, laughs and fun”. Johnny Depp and Jerry Bruckheimer blamed critics for the films failure, with Depp suggesting that the movies performance was hobbled by unfair expectations and bad reviews, many of which were drafted before its US premiere. “(The critics) had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I don’t have any expectations of that. I never do.”
Timing: The timing of the film release could also be a contributing factor of the lack of success of the film. With already negative and mixed reviews, the public may see the reviews and choose a different better rated film to watch instead. With films such as Despicable Me 2, The Wolverine, The Smurfs 2 and Monsters University to contend with, which were all shown at cinemas at the same time, and all have raving reviews, it was predictable to many from early on that The Lone Ranger would be unsuccessful.
Audience: The film was made by Walt Disney productions, with a usual target audience of children and families. However the action science-fiction film was not the usual type of film to be made by Disney, resulting in a fall of viewings. With more family orientated films such as Monsters University and Despicable Me 2 to contend with, it appeared clear which films families and young children would rather watch instead.
Release: The Lone Ranger faced many setbacks in the release date. The film’s release was initially planned for mid-2011, which was then shifted to December 2012, but budget concerns changed the release date once more to May 2013, but production delays meant that the film was not going to be ready for the planned date, but finally the film was released on the 4th of July 2013. However the film was met with more negative than positive reviews. Depp states that the reviews had already been written by critics before the release and the expectations were too high, possibly because of the setbacks and the constantly changing release date, this may have caused people to lose faith in the film?