Why didn't John Carter earn more money?

[Big Bird]

It wasn't that bad. I mean, why did people ignore it so much to the point it became a bomb? I wish it earned a lot more money. I think it was because of poor marketing. Maybe they shouldn't have had the ads focus on the battle with The White Apes a lot.

Now, Disney spent money for nothing. I love Disney, and I wish this earned more money. What did they do wrong?

[ilovemovies]

I don't know. People blame the marketing campaign for the movie's failure. Whatever the reason it's a real shame. I love the movie. It still currently sits on top 5 of the year thus far.

[Big Bird]

Originally Posted by ilovemovies

I don't know. People blame the marketing campaign for the movie's failure. Whatever the reason it's a real shame. I love the movie. It still currently sits on top 5 of the year thus far.

They should've focused on something OTHER than the White Ape fight.

I always felt the same way for Battleship. Even though that had good marketing, why did that do not that good?

[Herald]

John Carter was dull, it needed too much exposition, it had too many different camps (the four armed aliens, the good guys, the bad guys, the weird godlike aliens who wanted Mars destroyed), plotpoints that didn't go anywhere like the bad guy wants to marry the princess and have here killed right away, so why marry her in the first place?

I liked Battleship better even though it was predictable from start to finish. Shame the movies Taylor Kitsch starred in all tanked, I do like him as a lead.

[Big Bird]

Originally Posted by Herald

John Carter was dull, it needed too much exposition, it had too many different camps (the four armed aliens, the good guys, the bad guys, the weird godlike aliens who wanted Mars destroyed), plotpoints that didn't go anywhere like the bad guy wants to marry the princess and have here killed right away, so why marry her in the first place?

I liked Battleship better even though it was predictable from start to finish. Shame the movies Taylor Kitsch starred in all tanked, I do like him as a lead.

I understand. In my opinion, Battleship was great. Sure, it wasn't as faithful to the board game as it should've been, but it was still fun.

[kandesdad]

The problem is that despite the marketing that any film receives the number 1 form of marketing is word of mouth. If lots of people who see a film don't think much of it then they will tell other people that it wasn't good and not to see it. Most of the public trust their friends' opinions of films far more than they trust any professional film reviewer.

[Big Bird]

Originally Posted by kandesdad

The problem is that despite the marketing that any film receives the number 1 form of marketing is word of mouth. If lots of people who see a film don't think much of it then they will tell other people that it wasn't good and not to see it. Most of the public trust their friends' opinions of films far more than they trust any professional film reviewer.

OK. I can buy that. Nobody probably has even heard of the character anymore. He was around since 1912.

[Erroneous]

I saw most of the movie and fell asleep about 90 mins in. I hated it.

From a marketing standpoint, it looked like a cross between Star Wars and Avatar and people do not like seeing cheap bad looking rip offs unless it is a wannabe horror movie.

Many blockbusters these days are failures. Way more than used to be.

[jaw2929]

If a movie's title could kill it's chances, it'd be this one's.

[kandesdad]

Originally Posted by jaw2929

If a movie's title could kill it's chances, it'd be this one's.

I wonder if people thought they were going to see a movie version of TV's E.R. !?

[Stan Castle]

because it sucks

[echo_bravo]

It was a lousy made film imo.

But the reason it didnt do well was because it had no name director behind it and no name stars. Plus the whole premise was silly. A Confederate solider sent to Mars? GTFO of here. Disney was stupid to put so much money behind it. No way was it gonna do Avatar numbers.

[ilovemovies]

I've never felt more out of touch with every other moviegoer/general public I guess. Because I personally loved the movie. It still remains in my top 5 of the year so far.

And I think it's way fucking better than Avatar!

[God of War]

I really enjoyed John Carter. I saw it on bluray dvd. Not at the cinema. The story of John Carter of Mars was written by Edgar Rice Burrows many many years ago.
A Princess of Mars. Mars was also known as Barsoom. The book is pretty cool. And there are differences. But overall, I feel the film captured alot of the feeling.

[Herald]

Originally Posted by echo_bravo

But the reason it didnt do well was because it had no name director behind it and no name stars.

Which implies a known director and known actors can't make flops?

[bigred760]

I also thought it wasn't very good. Weak story, weak lead, and predictable ending. I would put some of the blame on the marketing campaign, which I thought did a poor job of showing what the movie was.

Not that it had anything to do with the poor box office performance, but losing the "of Mars" from the title was moronic too.

[MightyCelestial]

I haven't seen it yet,
but for those that say it failed b'cuz it was lousy;
I know that there are a bunch of movies out there that failed because they were lousy,
but still,
there are also a bunch of movies that were are lousy & yet still made a lot of money.

[echo_bravo]

Originally Posted by Herald

Which implies a known director and known actors can't make flops?

You're correct. Big name directors & actors can make flops as well. But lets be honest here, Disney made a 250 million dollar sci fi film starring an unknown. Still cant believe what they were thinking, Maybe if james Cameron directed it, it would of made a profit but that wasnt the case here.

Bottom line, it just wasn't a good film imo.

[SS-Block]

The bad marketing campaign for John Carter is one reason. The film's title, the posters, the trailers did little to capture excitement.

Then there's the failure of the casting. While some are talented actors/actresses, none have a huge following that would guarantee the film a strong foundation audience.

The director, while having a decent filmography, is not a household name. More to the point, he doesn't have a guaranteed following like Nolan or Tarantino.

If we think of Inception cast with the John Carter cast and directed by Andrew Stanton, I wonder if it would've been a disaster. However, with Nolan and DiCaprio guaranteeing a foundation audience, and with other respectable names backing them up, it allows for risk management.

You don't need star names, but it does need to be a good/great film.

John Carter was given a well deserved kicking by the critics.

A relatively expensive production of a bad film with no risk management was always likely to suffer.

[DaveyJoeG]

Andrew Stanton was actually in charge of all of the marketing for John Carter. He cut the trailers, picked the music, etc. It's one of those rare times when a director screwed up the marketing of the movie instead of the studio.

[BorderEevilIII]

I have found movies that tanked at the box office were not that bad when I watched it on DVD. "John Carter" however was baaaad... Could not relate to anything that was going on in the movie. I can see why this movie loss $$$ big time.

[Nightscare]

If I recall the preview correctly it said something like "Before there was (something I'd already seen) and before (another thing I'd already seen) there was John Carter". To me that says "Hey, I'm going to jump on this genre bandwagon and try to cash in". Movies made under such a pretense are rarely ever worth watching in my experience. Maybe that's not how the movie came off, but it's how the preview came off and it turned me off.

[Dirtyfrog]

Originally Posted by BorderEevilIII

"John Carter" however was baaaad

I wouldn't say John Carter was bad because it really wasn't. Believe me , i saw tons of shitty movies. The main problem with this movie is the forgetability of it all because nothing stands out . You are never surprised because everything seems borrowed from other sci-fi classics while the thruth is that John Carter is the most likely inspiration to alot of modern sci-fi movie (** cough cough ** AVATAR *cough*. )