Since “Lone Ranger” was made for $250 million, and it’s only taken in $87 million at the domestic box office, it may now be deemed a failure.

Johnny Depp, still hurt by the movie’s poor box office performance, contends that the film’s success was hampered by unrealistic expectations and unfavorable reviews, many of which were written before its US release last month. Depp said, “I think the reviews were written seven to eight months before we released the film.”

According to the Oscar-nominated actor, Disney’s expensive film, which might lose up to $190 million, never had a chance of succeeding due of openly hostile publicity.

“[The critics] had expectations that it must be a blockbuster. I don’t have any expectations of that. I never do.”

Depp portrays Tonto in the movie, which borrows a crew of writers and producers from The Pirates of the Caribbean series and depicts the story of the original radio series of The Lone Ranger from the perspective of the sidekick, Tonto.

Bruckheimer, the director, felt the same way about the critics. “I think they were reviewing the budget, not reviewing the movie. The audience doesn’t care what the budget is — they pay the same amount to see the movie if it costs a dollar or $20 million.”

“It’s unfortunate because the movie is a terrific movie, it’s a great epic film. It has lots of humour. 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,” Bruckheimer noted.

Armie Hammer, who starred with Depp in the $250 million movie as the eponymous character, mirrored their concerns.

Hammer remarked, “This is the deal with American critics: they’ve been gunning for our movie since it was shut down the first time. That’s when most of the critics wrote their initial reviews.”

The 26-year-old actor was making reference to the summer of 2011, when Disney abruptly canceled filming only weeks before it was scheduled to begin in order to reduce the movie’s hefty budget. After the three main actors, Depp, Bruckheimer, and director Gore Verbinski, agreed to accept wage cuts, the studio finally gave “Lone Ranger” the go-ahead.

In response to the negative reviews, Hammer commented, “They tried to do the same thing with ‘World War Z.”

”It didn’t work, the movie was successful. Instead they decided to slit the jugular of our movie.”

The explanation put out by Depp, Hammer, and Bruckheimer is not going to get much backing from the critics. A more straightforward response was provided by Rolling Stone film reviewer Peter Travers, who posed the question, “Why is The Lone Ranger such a huge box office flop? Because the movie sucks, that’s why,” he said.

On Rotten Tomatoes’ Tomatometer, which measures the proportion of favorable reviews, “The Lone Ranger” currently has a dismal 28 percent rating. Contrast that with Depp’s “Dark Shadows” (38%) and “Rango” (88%) as well as Bruckheimer, whose Tomatometer rating hasn’t above 55 percent since 2004.

On Friday, “The Lone Ranger” had its UK premiere.