Even though Westerns used to be extremely popular, stories of masked horsemen robbing
steam locomotives and showdowns at high noon hardly ever find their way into theaters these
days. Let's take a look at the real reasons why studios aren't making many Westerns anymore.
The early 2010s saw a few attempts by Hollywood to strike gold with big-budget Westerns, and
in most cases, the studios found nothing but disappointment.
The first of what became something of an unholy trinity of Western killers was 2010's Jonah
Hex, starring Josh Brolin as the antihero gunslinger. Based on the popular DC Comics
character, Jonah Hex was a massive failure. Despite Brolin sharing the screen with other
popular actors, like Megan Fox and Michael Fassbender, the film only earned a quarter
of the $47 million it cost to produce.
Next came 2011's Cowboys & Aliens, which tried to weave a classic alien invasion story into
an Old West backdrop. The film was directed by Jon Favreau, who was coming off the hit
Iron Man 2, and boasted extremely bankable stars, such as Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig.
Unfortunately, the movie fizzled at the box office stateside and barely broke even once
it went overseas.
But the crown jewel of Western disappointments was 2013's The Lone Ranger. One of the most
expensive flops ever made, the film starred Armie Hammer as the masked hero and Johnny
Depp as his comrade Tonto. Regardless of the star power and being helmed by blockbuster
director Gore Verbinski, the movie was a huge bomb. Like Cowboys & Aliens, it needed to
go overseas to squeeze out a profit.
Originally, The Lone Ranger was expected to have at least one sequel but after the film
tanked, studio execs were all, basically, thinking the same thing...
"Don't ever do that again."
You can make a low-budget Western, but if you're looking for the kind of movie that's
going to compete with other big action features, it will be pretty obvious if you do it on
the cheap.
"I'm going to shoot you and kill your people. And your sheriffs, maybe." (pew, pew, pew.)
Although it seems like Westerns would be affordable to produce, with their simple one-street towns
and disheveled characters wearing soiled clothing, the truth is that any authentic, period piece
is going to come with a heavy price tag.
A perfect example of this is the 2007 remake of 3:10 to Yuma starring Russell Crowe and
Christian Bale. A new town was built from scratch for the film, but the production ran
out of money, and so the fact that the town was unfinished for lack of funds was written
into the story. And, by the way, despite featuring A-list actors like Crowe and Bale and earning
largely favorable reviews, 3:10 to Yuma barely turned a profit.
For some time, it's been predicted that China would eventually surpass the U.S. and Canada
to become the biggest market in the world for movie ticket sales.
That isn't good news for Westerns. In the wake of The Lone Ranger, Michael Agresta of
The Atlantic took a long look at why the genre was declining. Among the many reasons, Agresta
pointed out...
"Exacerbating the problem is the rejection of cowboy movies by international audiences,
particularly the Chinese. [...] It's another reason why The Lone Ranger will probably be
the last attempt to build a true summer tent-pole in the genre."
Considering how important China is becoming to anyone making big-budget films, this could
be the worst time in Hollywood history to produce an epic Western.
"Could be worse."
"Worse? How could this be worse?"
Think of Westerns, and you'll inevitably conjure memories of cowboys swapping stories and eating
around a giant campfire or traveling across gorgeous landscapes on horseback. Westerns
can have plenty of long, drawn out scenes that gradually build the narrative, and that's
one of the great things about the genre. But when you compare that style to something like
an Avengers movie, where heroes are blasting through cities and battling armies of villains
every other scene, Westerns might seem a bit slow to some modern moviegoers.
Take a film like the Oscar-winning Unforgiven. A practically flawless movie, it's still a
beloved Western decades after its release, but it's over two hours long, and there isn't
a bona fide shoot-out until the final moments of the film. If you love Westerns, then you
probably appreciate the pacing but if you're conditioned to non-stop action, you might
feel like you deserve more for the price of your ticket.
"Deserve's got nothing to do with it."
While the greatest Westerns ever made never relied on cross-genre gimmicks or special
effects, plenty of filmmakers have tried to spice up their Westerns with modern, sci-fi
thrills. Unfortunately it usually ends in disaster.
One of the most recent examples is Cowboys & Aliens, which was a major disappointment
critically and financially. An older example is 1999's Wild Wild West, which fused a Western
with steampunk technology. In the film, Kevin Kline's Artemus Gordon boasted an arsenal
of bizarre and occasionally helpful inventions, while the villain, Dr. Arliss Loveless, played
by Kenneth Brannagh, was part man and part steam-powered spider. Although it was directed
by hitmaker Barry Sonnenfeld and starred Will Smith, Wild Wild West was quite deservedly
a tremendous flop that ended Smith's hot streak at the box office.
One of the few exceptions to the rule is Back to the Future Part Three. But it was the third
in a series of hugely popular films that had nothing to do with the frontier until its
final installment. Nevertheless, the fact that a time-travelling Western was a huge
blockbuster is still mind-boggling to some.
"Great Scott!
“I know, this is heavy."
With Westerns largely underperforming against other big-budget flicks, movie studios are
often in the position of winning critical acclaim or making a profit and for many, the
choice between those two is clear.
Take, for example, The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford. While it
received largely positive reviews and starred Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, it struggled
to make back even half of its $30 million budget. More recently, there was The Sisters
Brothers, with John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix. This widely praised Western about
a pair of unlikely guns for hire made a mere $13 million worldwide and only $3 million
domestically.
In many cases, it seems that today's best and most imaginative Westerns are being created
by independent filmmakers. So, the future of this classic American genre might be in
art houses and not at your mainstream cineplex.
But if that means more high quality Westerns on the big screen, we're sure fans won't mind
one bit.
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