Disney's The Lone Ranger has poor opening weekend

Leah Zanolla | Posted: Jul 7, 2013 | Updated: Oct 19, 2014 - 9:25:27 AM

After what seemed to be an endless cycle of stopping and starting production due to budgetary issues, Disney's The Lone Ranger arrived in theaters on July 3rd with great expectations. Reviews from critics were less than kind, but Disney had to hope those reviews would be ignored. Unfortunately, the reviews seemed to be on target, as the film earned only $49 million during its opening five days (including a Tuesday evening showing). That total was nearly $20 million less than the most modest of projections and well below Universal and Illumination Entertainment's Despicable Me 2, which won the holiday box office battle by earning $142 million. Surprisingly, The Lone Ranger is now in some poor company when its opening Friday to Sunday receipts are totaled. During that opening three-day period, it earned $29.4 million. Last year, Disney had another epic box office bust in John Carter, which despite a $250 million budget, still earned more than The Lone Ranger, pulling in $30.1 million. Further strengthening the blow for the The Lone Ranger is the fact that its budget is reported to be between $225 - $250 million, while the budget of Despicable Me 2 is only estimated to be around $76 million.