The Lone Ranger (2013)

Disney is one of the best when it comes to making film franchises, but even they make a misstep now and again.

Gore Verbinski's 2013 reboot of The Lone Ranger was an exorbitantly expensive movie, and Armie Hammer recently admitted one bizarre expense that added to the film's budget.

Sometimes, that big ticket blockbuster you released leads to a long and healthy franchise. Other times, like the 12 examples we provide here, you end up with a big steaming pile of failure. Read on to honor these valiant dead.

The Rock has been set to play the role of villain in the Shazam movie for quite some time, however, we're still waiting to see who plays the hero. However, The Rock has an idea who he'd like to go up against in the movie.

Apparently the Western is dead. But these 10 classics from the last 20 years would probably disagree.

Last year was a pretty fantastic one for movie music. Directors like David O. Russell, Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino and Ben Affleck made not only fantastic films, but also beautifully crafted soundtracks that blended perfectly with the story and visuals on screen. As a result, 2013 had a lot to live up to, but looking back on the last twelve months reveals that this year’s crop of filmmakers were more than up for the task.

I'll be recapping the highs and lows of the movie business experienced over the past 12 months. 2013 has been a pretty fascinating time for film, full of reversals of fortune, dizzying successes and even some truly polarizing pictures. So let's look back and GIF out!

Quentin Tarantino doesn't have a movie coming out this year, nor is he currently working on one, but that doesn't mean he won't do his damnedest to dominate the news anyway. Just after releasing his incredibly premature Top 10 list of the year, which included The Lone Ranger and Kick-Ass 2, he's given an interview to the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles in which he sounds off on Ben Affleck playing Batman. Strap in, everybody! It's time for some QT truth bombs

The Quentin Tarantino Archives has released a list of the esteemed director’s favorite films of the year so far. Personally, I was surprised by several of his picks, so I thought I’d test the rest of you to see if from the twenty films listed you can figure out which titles are really on his top ten.

According to The Wrap, as Disney reels from the estimated $150 million they lost on The Lone Ranger, they're tinkering with producer Jerry Bruckheimer's role on Pirates 5, talking about limiting the film's budget and, most shockingly, denying him final cut

"First and foremost, the media is targeting all these movies. There’s intense scrutiny on us, way more than before,” the actor said, eventually shifting some of the blame on the marketing efforts of major studios. “They are spending so much money to pull the wool over the audience’s eyes with these effects-driven movies.'

Depp, whose face alone has helped movies like The Tourist and Public Enemies make more than $200 million worldwide, is clearly lying through his teeth about not expecting The Lone Ranger to be a blockbuster-- he knew as well as anyone how much money Disney spent on the film, how hard they marketed it, and how much the film was engineered to appeal to as many audiences as possible.

America's bizarre love affair with unfunny "comedies" reared its ugly head again this weekend as the sequel that no one should have wanted, Grown Ups 2 hit theaters and did better than the first one did.

Don't cry for Disney. Thanks to the wild success of their first three releases of 2013, they've become the first studio this year to gross a billion dollars at the domestic box office. And just think how much more they are making in merchandizing.

Analysts say that by the end of The Lone Ranger's run it will likely only manage to make $125 million domestically and $150 million overseas - for a total of only $275 million. It will likely be the second triple-digit loss for Disney in as many years, as the company had to deal with the $200 million loss of Andrew Stanton's John Carter in 2012.

Following the insane success of their Depp-fronted Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, Disney was expecting Johnny Depp to be the major draw. But with his seemingly second flop in two years, it appears Depp's star power is failing. And I say it's his own damn fault.

Jamaican-American comic book artist Keron Grant, best known for his work on Marvel issues, recently posted a series of concept drawings on his Tumblr account account that makes the prospect of a TV series seem not so far-fetched.

One of the first casting rumors to hit at the time placed acting newcomer Armie Hammer taking the role of Batman. Hammer has since gone on to make a name for himself with starring turns in The Social Network, J. Edgar and, most recently, the big screen adaptation of The Long Ranger

Animated sequel Despicable Me 2 stole the show this weekend following a highly successful early July 4th holiday opening. Gru and his wildly popular minion crew outdid themselves with an $82 million debut, well beyond the $56 million opening for the first movie back in 2010.

Johnny Depp as a Native American sidekick just isn’t selling tickets. The Lone Ranger is unlikely to make it even to $50 million as its final domestic total for the 5-day holiday weekend. Disney’s in trouble here because it wasn’t exactly cheap to make. Though Johnny Depp reportedly took a 20% pay cut to star, the film still cost around $215 million to get in the can.

Last month I had the chance to fly out to Santa Fe, New Mexico to take part in a press day for The Lone Ranger, and during my stay I had the terrific opportunity to sit down one-on-one with the star in the titular role. Check out our conversation below, where Hammer talks about tackling an iconic pop culture character, working with both director Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, and his surprise that we didn’t all just die out in the desert

Looking to The Lone Ranger, Despicable Me 2, and The Heat, for inspiration, we've pulled together a selection of standout westerns, animated adventures, and features with kick-ass heroines.

Yes, it's only Wednesday, but with tomorrow being Independence Day and a whole lot of people considering this a holiday weekend (not that we're jealous or anything!), all of the weekend's biggest releases are already open, and the box office reports are rolling in. The two biggest films, The Lone Ranger and Despicable Me 2, ought to have no trouble with competing with each other.

At some point, walking into a theater lobby or clicking through some trailers online, you have definitely said to yourself: "Wait, they're remaking that?" It's a longstanding complaint that there are no new ideas in Hollywood, and getting upset about the amount of remakes and sequels is as useless as yelling about the heat in the summer.

Check out or conversation inside in which the director not only links the relationship between the Lone Ranger and Tonto to both Don Quixote and Midnight Run, but also talks about the importance of showing the truth of the Native American experience, his apprehension about taking on the project initially, and his hopes to do something small as his next film.

Standing at 6'5", Armie Hammer has more experience than most with heights. But standing that tall just means he was that much higher up while standing on a rickety platform balanced on a cliff while shooting The Lone Ranger.

It's been almost exactly ten years since the first Pirates of the Caribbean surprised the hell out of everyone by being pretty great, and it's easy to forget how genuinely wonderful that was. Johnny Depp was suddenly a mega-star, pirates were suddenly cool again, and Gore Verbinski proved that the right combination of action and humor could make even a theme park ride turn into a pretty great movie

Walt Disney Studios showed off a full 20 minutes of action-packed footage from Gore Verbinski’s The Lone Ranger, which, in addition to the recently-released trailer, makes the film look like it could be one of the biggest surprise hits of the summer season.

Though the early summer blockbusters like Star Trek Into Darkness and Iron Man 3 are stealing all the attention right now, it won't be long before we're gearing up for the July 4 holiday, and with it The Lone Ranger. The latest collaboration between Pirates of the Caribbean veterans Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp, plus Armie Hammer tossed in to play the title role

Does this tell us anything about The Lone Ranger we didn't know already? Nah. Like Pirates of the Caribbean before it, this movie will succeed only if it manages to make something surprising, comic and hugely entertaining out of a very thin premise. Verbinski and Depp were justly celebrated for pulling ti off back in 2003