So the hot news at the moment is that Despicable Me 2 is going to earn roughly about $130 million dollars on its debut while Lone Ranger is only going to earn $50 million and cost Disney a fair bit of money.
Ok, so maybe that isn't quite hot news (at least not to us. It probably is to the people behind these films), but it is still very interesting.
Interesting to me, at least.
I mean, besides Lone Ranger being a big budget movie, Disney hasn't exactly spared any expense in spruiking it either. Ads for it are everywhere and everyone is talking about it on their TV programs. It's all about the Lone Ranger. I'm sure Universal has spent their fare share on advertising for Despicable Me 2, but the media isn't as saturated with Despicable Me 2 as it is with the Lone Ranger.
The Lone Ranger is supposed to be the movie to go and see. It's the bees knees.
Except that (as I've already said) it's probably going to cost Disney a large amount of money due to poor performance.
But why is that?
It's not like they skimped with advertising. Disney is a known and trusted (ok, maybe not so trusted. We're still scared about what they'll do with wonderful franchises like Star Wars. But they're still well known) company. And with Johnny Depp and one of Hollywood's rising stars Armie Hammer leading the cast there shouldn't be any problems drawing people in with the cast. Plus if there was, Gore Verbinski is directing. It pretty much should have the same magic as The Pirates of the Caribbean had (and didn't that do well!). It is a combination that has proven to be extremely successful in the past.
Not that any of that should matter, really. It's the Lone Ranger, after all! Everyone is familiar with the Lone Ranger. People should be flocking to the cinemas based on that alone. I don't know about you, but I was ready to do just that when I first heard that they were making a Lone Ranger movie.
But then I heard who was starring in it, and I had some doubts. Still I waved them away. I could overlook Johnny Depp being the Lone Ranger. He might even bring some of that Captain Jack Sparrow magic to the role.
Only he's not the Lone Ranger.
And that's what has turned me off from going to see the Lone Ranger. The role of Tonto is just Johnny Depp in another funny hat. Don't get me wrong, I live Depp in some of these funny hat roles. He's what made Pirates of the Caribbean, and I can't imagine another Sweeny Todd (I need to see the play). But, besides voice acting, that's pretty much all we've seen Depp do lately: funny hat roles.
Maybe Depp can bring the same Captain Jack Sparrow magic to Tonto. Maybe he can't. It's not something many people will be able to tell you for awhile, because they're in no hurry to see the Lone Ranger.
Then there's the whole Depp is playing an Indian character. That really upset the hidden politically correct person inside of me. There's something about that that I just don't like, and I'm sure it's offensive in some way. Even if Depp has been adopted as a son of the Comanche, I'm still sure it's not PC (and I do apologise for this whole PC thing, it's not something I usually do).
I think with this, Disney has tried too hard to recreate the magic of previous successes and reused the same formula when they clearly should've tried something different. Maybe even something a little more original than using the same leading star, director and producer. They've tried to recapture something that can't be caught, and it's going to cost them. Where as, Universal has done something differently, even if it's with a sequel. They've done something to win the trust of film goers enough to part with their hard earned.
Just a thought.
Peace out!
Fox
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