....
Johnny Depp, Armie Hammer and "Lone Ranger" executive producer Jerry Bruckheimer are blaming bad buzz and U.S. critics for the movie's lackluster box office performance.
All three put the movie's critics on blast during interviews with Yahoo! Movies UK, going as far as to suggest that negative reviews were written months in advance of its July 3 release.
"This is the deal with American critics.
They've been gunning for our movie since it was shut down the first
time," Hammer said. "And I think that's probably when most of the
critics wrote their initial reviews."
Disney
shelved the production in 2011 after the budget ballooned upwards of
$250 million. It wasn't until director Gore Verbinski and Bruckheimer
whittled the cost down to $215 million that Disney reinstated the
production.
So far, Disney has yet to turn a profit from the film. "The Lone Ranger" has grossed under $175.5 million around the world.Despite the expensive price tag, Depp -- who plays Tonto, the titular Western hero's mystical Native American sidekick -- believes the media's expectations for the film were entirely too big to begin with.
"I think the reviews were written when they heard Gore [Verbinksi] and Jerry and me were going to do 'The Lone Ranger,'" Depp said. "Then their expectations of it that, you know, it must be a blockbuster. I didn't have any expectations of that. I never do. Why would I?"
"I think that they were reviewing
the budget and not reviewing the movie," Bruckheimer said. "The audience
doesn't care what the budget is. They pay the same amount to see the
movie whether it cost a dollar or $20 million."
Even though only 27 percent of reviews aggregated by Rotten Tomatoes
were positive, Bruckheimer maintains "The Lone Ranger" is a terrific
movie, and that critics will change their tune upon revisiting the film
in the future.
"It's one of those movies that,
whatever critics missed it this time, will re-review it in a few years
and see that they made a mistake," Bruckheimer added.
No comments:
Post a Comment