“Lone Ranger” could turn unprofitable for Walt Disney

The disappointing opening of “Lone Ranger” movie last weekend could cost Walt Disney huge losses as the movie-makers production gathered only $49 million in five days. This is well under the forecasts of at least $60 million as production costs well exceeded that number. Disney is expected to record a loss between $100 – $180 million.

Some critics have blamed it on timing of the release . Despite the July 4 weekend which is traditionally profitable for entertainment industry, “The Lone Ranger” debuted along with movie hit “Despicable Me 2”, which brought in the record $142.1 million in domestic gross proceeds during the five-day weekend period. According to market analysts it surely overlapped with “The Lone Ranger” audience despite their genre differences.

Others expressed concern that a western doesnt attract action movie fans and young audience is no more interested in the genre.

The people who saw “The Lone Ranger” were decidedly older: 68% were over 25, while 24% were over 50 and only 16% of the audience was younger than 18 according to MarketWatch. The more mature audience, perhaps familiar with the classic “Lone Ranger” character had to adjust to Disneys presentation, Dergarabedian, the president of the box-office division at Hollywood.com said. The transition between the 1950s TV show and the movie didnt happen.

“It’s one thing to have fun with big action movies, but, when you have something like a western, it’s tough to tinker with the formula,” Dergarabedian said for MarketWatch. It appears, in light of “The Lone Ranger,” that “the die hard fans don’t like that, and the younger audience isnt that into westerns anyway,” he said.

Share price of Walt Disney Co. raised by 0.36% yesterday despite negative news and has been up more than 30% this year. Investors arent worried so much about Disney stock in part because the exceeding estimates $1.2 billion performance of “Iron Man 3” should compensate more than enough the entertainment companys “Lone Ranger” losses.