Johnny Depp, in an interview with Yahoo Movie UK, blames critics for the poor showing at the box office for the big budgeted Lone Ranger movie.  Disney Pictures, put the picture on hold in 2011 when the budget ballooned to $250 million dollars and only agreed to continue production when production costs were reduced to $215 million dollars.  To date, the motion picture has only grossed $175 million worldwide.  In addition to production costs, Disney spent millions marketing the film. In the Yahoo interview Depp addressed the negative reviews which started months before the movie’s release, “I think the reviews were written when they heard Gore [Verbinksi] and Jerry  and me were going to do ‘The Lone Ranger,'” Depp said. “Then their expectations of it that, you know, it must be a blockbuster. I didn’t have any expectations  of that. I never do. Why would I?”  Armie Hammer, the other star of the movie added, “If you go back and read the negative reviews, most of them aren’t about the content of the movie, but more what’s behind it. While we were making it we knew people were gunning for it. I think it was the popular thing when the movie hit rocky terrain they jumped on the bandwagon to try to bash it. They tried to do the same thing to ‘World War Z,’ it didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie.”  So are Depp and Hammer simply cry babies or do they have a legitimate point?  The fact is they are 50% correct and 50% misguided.  Critics used to make or break Broadway shows and movies.  Whatever Clive Barns said was gospel.  He was largely responsible for success or failure on Broadway. Siskel and Ebert had that same kind of influence over movies.  However, in the new world of social media the word spreads quickly.  If the movie was Oscar worthy, it would be known to everyone.  The truth is, The Lone Ranger is not a bad movie but it isn’t worth the $215 million dollar price tag.  Of course Depp makes any movie he’s in worth seeing.  And, as producer Jerry Bruckheimer said, “It’s one of those movies that whatever critics missed in it this time, they’ll review it in a few years and see that they made a mistake.”  I agree with his assessment but that doesn’t negate the fact that Disney will take a large hit on The Lone Ranger and when all is said and done, that’s all the investors care about. Other than the producer, director and actors, who strive to keep the medium an art form, movies are simply another way of making a dollar; many millions of dollars. As Steven Spielberg and George Lucas said a couple of months ago, an implosion is coming.