‘Lone Ranger’ to Lose Disney $160-190 Million

The eye-popping hauls of major Disney tent-pole films like Iron Man 3 and The Avengers can also be matched by the head-spinning losses of bombs like John Carter and now The Lone Ranger. In announcing numbers for its fiscal third quarter, Disney revealed that it will lose anywhere between $160 million and $190 million on the recent flop, merely a year after taking a $200 million hit on John Carter. These recent misses demonstrate the drawbacks of the tent-pole strategy (huge budget, big-name actors, massive marketing campaign). But Disney is sticking with the strategy, pointing to the major success of Iron Man 3 and The Avengers. In the next three years Disney will be rolling out Maleficent with Angelina Jolie, a fifth Pirates of the Caribbean, and the first Star Wars sequel.