Mark Wahlberg 2 Guns Premiere - P 2013
Getty ImagesMark Wahlberg isn’t so sure the studios are to blame for this summer’s big-budget disappointments. The actor is placing some of the burden on the media for putting so much focus on the failures of films such as The Lone Ranger.
“First and foremost, the media is targeting all these movies,” the actor said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. “There’s intense scrutiny on us, way more than before.”
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A number of pricey tentpoles have stalled at the box office this summer, including The Lone Ranger ($175.6 million worldwide), White House Down ($125.1 million worldwide) and R.I.P.D. ($49.6 million globally). Wahlberg said studio marketing also is to blame, explaining that studios have not done enough to show how their films are different.
“It’s not like Jurassic Park, where you saw something groundbreaking and innovative and said, ‘Holy … I gotta see that.’ Every end-of-the-Earth movie kind of feels the same.”
Wahlberg is currently shooting his own big-budget film, Michael Bay‘s Transformers 4, which the actor insisted won’t suffer from the same fate because it has a strong human element, and his director is skilled at keeping a project on budget.
