"Not sure I understand Strick's comment...political perhaps?"

Nope. Texas has been "overexposed" of over the past few years and people aren't interested. Costume dramas are out of fashion, note how little box office Master and Commander did relative to how good it was. Westerns such as Open Range would seem to need to pay audiences to come see them. Something is terribly, terribly wrong with property development at Disney (Home On The Range? Treasure Planet? what the hell were they thinking?).

This movie suffered from all of that and the box office showed it. No politics necessary or intended.