10 Major Blockbusters You Knew Were Doomed Before Release

10. The Lone Ranger (2013)

On paper, The Lone Ranger looked like a guaranteed smash hit. The studio, producer, writers, director and star that had combined to steer the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies to over $2.5bn at the box office reunited in the hope that transporting the formula to the Western genre would yield similar results. It didn't. It was announced way back in September 2008 that Johnny Depp would be playing Tonto, with Gore Verbinski named as director in September 2010. The problems began when the production was temporarily delayed before a single frame had been shot due to concerns with a budget that had spiralled to over $250m, a frankly ridiculous amount of money to be spending on a Western. The production was beset with problems including wildfires, adverse weather conditions and the unfortunate death of a crew member, with rumours from the set full of tales of excess such as Verbinski's demands that the trains featured in the movie be built entirely from scratch at great financial cost. It seemed as though the knives were already out for Disney's latest mega-budget gamble, which carried extra significance given the huge loss made on John Carter just a year previously. Many analysts were predicting the movie would bomb, which would surely explain why the Pirates of the Caribbean connection was so heavily played up in the marketing. After several release date changes, The Lone Ranger hit theatres on July 3 and earned a catastrophic $29.2m during its opening weekend, and ultimately failed to even crack $100m domestic. The movie just about clawed back its budget with a worldwide gross of $260.5m but resulted in yet another huge financial write-down for Walt Disney Pictures.