2. Critics Pre-Judged The Film Based On Production Problems - The Lone Ranger
The Failure: One of the biggest box office bombs in recent cinema history, The Lone Ranger has to date made just $175.4 million against a $225 million budget. Critics slapped it with 27%, while the Razzie jury remains out.
The Excuse: Star Armie Hammer claimed that U.S. critics "slit the jugular" of the film, and along with Johnny Depp and producer Jerry Bruckheimer all seemed to agree that the film had been pre-judged before release because of its well-publicised production problems. Depp amusingly noted, "I think the reviews were written 7-8 months before we released the film." Bruckheimer meanwhile said, "I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie."
The Truth: Critics slammed The Lone Ranger for essentially trying to coast on Johnny Depp's success in Pirates of the Caribbean, as well as the bloated run-time and the film's banality outside of its set-pieces, which were themselves overloaded with CGI.