3. It Was Released Opposite Despicable Me 2
Films released on special occasions like the 4th of July have the potential to bring in big money since it's a time when people aren't at work or school, and are in high spirits therefore are more amenable to spending money. So a film you release then needs to be targeted to as wide a demographic as possible in order to maximise its gross revenue. The Lone Ranger was rated PG-13, which cuts out a lot of family audiences since a lot of young children either won't want to see it or won't be allowed to by their parents. Whereas Despicable Me 2 was rated PG, meaning that close to every cinemagoer was a potential customer for it. And for a day out on a special occasion (at least for families), an animated child-friendly comedy is a much more appealing option than a Western. But demographics aside, releasing The Lone Ranger alongside Despicable Me 2 would have been box office suicide regardless of the time of year. Let's go back to 2010 when Despicable Me was released. It was incredibly popular, its budget was $69 million and within four months it grossed just over $250 million. So its sequel was always bound to equal or top that. Which means putting an incredibly expensive movie that's the start of a new franchise against it is almost guaranteed to be a bad move. And that turned out to be very much the case with Despicable Me 2's opening weekend gross being $83 million on a $76 million budget while The Lone Ranger was left in the dust after grossing less than $30 million. Several weeks on, this state of affairs has remained the same with the US gross figures being $85 million for The Lone Ranger and $306 million for Despicable Me 2 as of July the 28th.