As of August 3, “The Lone Ranger,” which cost $250 million, has grossed $86 million at the U.S. box office with a 28% fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.
Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer have spoken out for the first time since mega-budget Western “The Lone Ranger” crumbled at the global box office, blaming U.S. critics for one of the biggest Hollywood trainwrecks of the year.
“I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the film,” Depp explained in a new interview.
Disney’s costly picture, which could lose as much as $150 million, never stood a chance of succeeding because of overtly negative press, according to Depp.
“I think the reviews were written when they heard Gore Verbinski and Jerry Bruckheimer and me were going to do ‘The Lone Ranger’,” he said. “They had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I didn’t have any expectations of that. I never do.”
Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who made millions off the “Pirates of the Caribbean” franchise with Depp, agreed when it came to the press’ coverage. “I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie, ” Bruckheimer told Yahoo U.K.-Ireland. “The audience doesn’t care what the budget is — they pay the same amount if it costs a dollar or 20 million dollars.”
“It’s unfortunate because the movie is a terrific movie, it’s a great epic film. It has lots of humor. Its one of those movies that whatever critics missed in it this time, they’ll review it in a few years and see that they made a mistake.”
Depp’s co-star, Armie Hammer, who played the title character in the film, echoed their sentiments. “This is the deal with American critics: they’ve been gunning for our movie since it was shut down the first time,” Hammer said, “That’s when most of the critics wrote their initial reviews.”
Despite the objection of his publicist, the 26 year-old actor added:
“They tried to do the same thing with to ‘World War Z’, it didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie.”
