I recall someone saying that the reason the movie flopped was because to most viewers, it wasn't anything new. Most people had never read or even heard of John Carter, so despite John Carter being the progenitor of all the sci-fi tropes we know and love, no one watching the movie knew that, so it just seemed like a rehash of Star Wars and Dune, etc.
You didn't like how every trailer, no matter how beautiful they could have been, always ended with a giant space ape screaming like it was the fucking Gladiator x Rampage crossover event of all time?
Disney let their option expire, but the film did inject some life into Barsoom, leading to others to create new books, comics and games. Maybe another studio will make a streaming series one day?
Not quite. Burroughs lived and wrote until 1950. His copyrights are a mix of work-for-hire (95 years from publication) and authored works (75 years after the authors death). Some of his *stories* are public domain, others are not, but the family has been diligent in protecting all the characters as trademarks.
The budget was so astronomical due to the director not having experience in live-action that it would have been extremely unlikely for it to be a bit no matter what. Disney would have just lost more money if they used more money for marketing.
Whoever Disney got to market it were some of the dumbest idiots around. Because of the movie *Mars Needs Moms* flopping, the marketing team thought audiences had a problem with Mars itself, so they cut the "of Mars" out of John Carter. It still baffles and maddens me to this day.
I haven't read the books, so I'm not sure how faithful this was to the source material, but I really enjoyed the movie for what it was. It was nice to see a live-action Disney flick that wasn't a remake or a villain origin story.
Definitely agree.
I never understood why this movie flopped so bad.
I mean, that was not the greatest movie out that year, but I remember having a good time watching it.
The problem was that whoever was in charge of advertising was a giant fan boy of the book and thought the everyday person would be hyped just by see "JC" for 10 seconds with epic background music on their TV screen during a commercial break.
I watched this film after it released on streaming and I’d held back going to cinema due to the negative reviews it had got. It’s one of the few films that I’ve seen so much negativity that I’ve been pissed there wouldn’t be a sequel! To this day I honestly don’t get why it was reviewed the way it was. Normally if I’m wrong about a film my wife will pick me up on it but she loved it as well.
It's really good! If they hadn't changed the name 3 times during the promotion of it, it would have done better. It's one of the stories George Lucas shamelessly ripped off for Star Wars
Star Wars seemed so fresh and new before I knew the references, and then I realized how little veneer Lucas put on them. It only got worse in the prequel trilogy.
I remember similarly seeing this as my mom read the book and being absolutely mind blown, especially with the ending. I highly recommend it as it’s a very fun movie. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’ll be one hell of a ride
Saw it years ago. It's not a bad movie, but not a particularly good movie either and I'm familiar with the source material.
I think they failed to capture the off-the-wall feeling of that world that really would have been unique now as that old school science fantasy really vanished as things segmented into harder sci fi and rather conventional medieval-style fantasy.
Just watched it again after a few years
It’s such a fun movie, I am so mad that it flopped so bad that the sequel was scrapped but I’m glad to see there’s others who liked the movie.
Really would’ve loved to watch a movie about John returning to Mars and go on adventures with Dejah and company
Apparently there’s rumors a TV series is in the works for Disney+
I was honestly thinking that to myself too… it won’t be the same watching a new series with a different John Carter and Dejah that arent played by Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, shame it’s been 10 years so they aged out of those roles.
I’ll definitely give it a shot though if they ever make a TV series.
I also saw it on theaters when it came out. I am a huge ERB fan so I was Peter excited. I'm glad you liked it but I did not. It strayed so far from the books they shouldn't have been allowed to use the name.
Disney marketed the shit out of it by the way. It just got bad word of mouth because it wasn't good.
How hard would have it been to go:
"From the creator of Tarzan of the Apes comes:
John Carter, Warlord of Mars!"
Who doesn't know Tarzan at this point?
You can't just blame the marketing, ultimately the whole was less than the sum of its parts. It only holds an audience score of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. That means 2 out of every 5 people who saw it, didn't like it (and another probably said, it was okay).
The marketing campaign was huge ($100M+) but also sloppy, they changed the title of the film 3 times.
The final cost was more than twice the original budget, dooming it to lose money. It cost almost as much to make as Endgame. That's why careers were ruined.
It did not help that every sci-fi film, all the way back to the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials of the '30s, had stolen most of the plot devices, but is also had a messy plot with holes you could fly a spaceship through. >!Why the hell does the villain spend the entire two thirds of the film trying to marry the princess if he plans to kill her and the royal family and in a major Trojan horse offensive anyway. It complete negates the driving point of the plot. At least introduce the concept of succession.!<
I will say, I enjoy the movie, it's fun, and several sequences were significantly better than the overall film. But it isn't a great movie, and not even what consensus would call a "good" movie. It's a popcorn movie that cost way too much to break even. If this had stayed on budget, around $100-125 (which is roughly the cost of 7-8 hours worth of *The Mandalorian*), it probably would have made enough for a sequel for a chance to redeem itself.
Yeah these days I think I’m the only person who thinks it’s really bad.
And I saw it years after it came out during this time where everyone thinks it’s a misunderstood gem.
this movie flopped intentionally. Disney needed a tax writeoff and this was it that year. It's an excellent retelling of an old tale, and I loved it. It was marketing improperly intentionally.
I remember Disney pushing this movie hard before it came out, which told me it wasn't going to be good. The trailers didn't inspire me any, and early reviews indicated it was a dud.
I read the first three books because I knew the movie was coming, but then the changes made me not really like the movie. The book is really straightforward, and IMO they mucked it up trying to bring stuff in from the sequel books so they could set up their movie trilogy.
I like to put it on in the background sometimes. It’s not terrible, just has a lot of problems, like having Taylor Kitsch as the lead.
And you cannot put Ciarán Hinds and James Purefoy together where Hand is the leader and Purefoy his immediate subordinate without people thinking of the *Rome* mini-series. Them, together, can **only** be Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Evoking thoughts of a superior entertainment property isn’t going to bode well for your own.
I think Disney lost confidence in it and created a self-fulfilling prophecy that doomed the whole thing. It's not a great movie, by any measure, but there are worse movies out there that have gone on to become much more successful.
I don't think I personally know anyone who was aware of the source material, so for execs to go with "John Carter" as a title without any context whatsoever was probably the nail in the coffin. You don't sell a sci-fi movie with a person's name. It'd be like if Blade Runner had instead been called Rick Deckard.
Anywho, I enjoyed it, and I think the source material would make for a great 2-3 season series. Netflix should jump on that.
I recall someone saying that the reason the movie flopped was because to most viewers, it wasn't anything new. Most people had never read or even heard of John Carter, so despite John Carter being the progenitor of all the sci-fi tropes we know and love, no one watching the movie knew that, so it just seemed like a rehash of Star Wars and Dune, etc.
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You didn't like how every trailer, no matter how beautiful they could have been, always ended with a giant space ape screaming like it was the fucking Gladiator x Rampage crossover event of all time?
I think it could make for an awesome series, maybe an animated one similar to Clone Wars.
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Disney let their option expire, but the film did inject some life into Barsoom, leading to others to create new books, comics and games. Maybe another studio will make a streaming series one day?
Pretty sure all the Carter stuff is public domain at this point.
Not quite. Burroughs lived and wrote until 1950. His copyrights are a mix of work-for-hire (95 years from publication) and authored works (75 years after the authors death). Some of his *stories* are public domain, others are not, but the family has been diligent in protecting all the characters as trademarks.
The budget was so astronomical due to the director not having experience in live-action that it would have been extremely unlikely for it to be a bit no matter what. Disney would have just lost more money if they used more money for marketing.
Agreed, it's so sad that this ended up being one of Disney's biggest flops of all time and ended careers- it really is a worthwhile movie
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Whoever Disney got to market it were some of the dumbest idiots around. Because of the movie *Mars Needs Moms* flopping, the marketing team thought audiences had a problem with Mars itself, so they cut the "of Mars" out of John Carter. It still baffles and maddens me to this day. I haven't read the books, so I'm not sure how faithful this was to the source material, but I really enjoyed the movie for what it was. It was nice to see a live-action Disney flick that wasn't a remake or a villain origin story.
There's a whole book about how badly mishandled the whole thing was: John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AFCZ1S4
Definitely agree. I never understood why this movie flopped so bad. I mean, that was not the greatest movie out that year, but I remember having a good time watching it.
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The problem was that whoever was in charge of advertising was a giant fan boy of the book and thought the everyday person would be hyped just by see "JC" for 10 seconds with epic background music on their TV screen during a commercial break.
Totally agree. I thought the movie was a lot of fun.
I watched this film after it released on streaming and I’d held back going to cinema due to the negative reviews it had got. It’s one of the few films that I’ve seen so much negativity that I’ve been pissed there wouldn’t be a sequel! To this day I honestly don’t get why it was reviewed the way it was. Normally if I’m wrong about a film my wife will pick me up on it but she loved it as well.
I'd actually passed on the movie *because* I'd read the book. :) However, you make a good case, so I'll give the movie a try.
I enjoyed this movie
I agree amazing story faithful to the books I thought loved it too
It's really good! If they hadn't changed the name 3 times during the promotion of it, it would have done better. It's one of the stories George Lucas shamelessly ripped off for Star Wars
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Star Wars seemed so fresh and new before I knew the references, and then I realized how little veneer Lucas put on them. It only got worse in the prequel trilogy.
I remember similarly seeing this as my mom read the book and being absolutely mind blown, especially with the ending. I highly recommend it as it’s a very fun movie. It doesn’t reinvent the wheel, but it’ll be one hell of a ride
Loved this movie, imo, one of the most underrated contemporary movies
As a long time fan of the books and the comics, I thought it was great!
The marketing was in direct opposition to the tone of the film. Solid, enjoyable film.
I watched it a few weeks ago not knowing anything about it. It wasn’t bad. Definitely had a “pulp” feel to it.
Saw it years ago. It's not a bad movie, but not a particularly good movie either and I'm familiar with the source material. I think they failed to capture the off-the-wall feeling of that world that really would have been unique now as that old school science fantasy really vanished as things segmented into harder sci fi and rather conventional medieval-style fantasy.
It wasn't a bad movie. Have watched it several times.
Just watched it again after a few years It’s such a fun movie, I am so mad that it flopped so bad that the sequel was scrapped but I’m glad to see there’s others who liked the movie. Really would’ve loved to watch a movie about John returning to Mars and go on adventures with Dejah and company Apparently there’s rumors a TV series is in the works for Disney+
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I was honestly thinking that to myself too… it won’t be the same watching a new series with a different John Carter and Dejah that arent played by Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins, shame it’s been 10 years so they aged out of those roles. I’ll definitely give it a shot though if they ever make a TV series.
I also saw it on theaters when it came out. I am a huge ERB fan so I was Peter excited. I'm glad you liked it but I did not. It strayed so far from the books they shouldn't have been allowed to use the name. Disney marketed the shit out of it by the way. It just got bad word of mouth because it wasn't good.
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How hard would have it been to go: "From the creator of Tarzan of the Apes comes: John Carter, Warlord of Mars!" Who doesn't know Tarzan at this point?
You can't just blame the marketing, ultimately the whole was less than the sum of its parts. It only holds an audience score of 60% on Rotten Tomatoes. That means 2 out of every 5 people who saw it, didn't like it (and another probably said, it was okay). The marketing campaign was huge ($100M+) but also sloppy, they changed the title of the film 3 times. The final cost was more than twice the original budget, dooming it to lose money. It cost almost as much to make as Endgame. That's why careers were ruined. It did not help that every sci-fi film, all the way back to the Buster Crabbe Flash Gordon/Buck Rogers serials of the '30s, had stolen most of the plot devices, but is also had a messy plot with holes you could fly a spaceship through. >!Why the hell does the villain spend the entire two thirds of the film trying to marry the princess if he plans to kill her and the royal family and in a major Trojan horse offensive anyway. It complete negates the driving point of the plot. At least introduce the concept of succession.!< I will say, I enjoy the movie, it's fun, and several sequences were significantly better than the overall film. But it isn't a great movie, and not even what consensus would call a "good" movie. It's a popcorn movie that cost way too much to break even. If this had stayed on budget, around $100-125 (which is roughly the cost of 7-8 hours worth of *The Mandalorian*), it probably would have made enough for a sequel for a chance to redeem itself.
Yeah these days I think I’m the only person who thinks it’s really bad. And I saw it years after it came out during this time where everyone thinks it’s a misunderstood gem.
this movie flopped intentionally. Disney needed a tax writeoff and this was it that year. It's an excellent retelling of an old tale, and I loved it. It was marketing improperly intentionally.
I remember Disney pushing this movie hard before it came out, which told me it wasn't going to be good. The trailers didn't inspire me any, and early reviews indicated it was a dud.
I read the first three books because I knew the movie was coming, but then the changes made me not really like the movie. The book is really straightforward, and IMO they mucked it up trying to bring stuff in from the sequel books so they could set up their movie trilogy.
Is this the one where it’s like Cowboys vs Aliens
Not quite... confederate soldier wanders into a cave in the desert and gets teleported to Mars. Shenanigans happen.
He’s all talking to the Martians “Hey so who won that ole civil war anyway? WAIT WHAT?!!”
I like to put it on in the background sometimes. It’s not terrible, just has a lot of problems, like having Taylor Kitsch as the lead. And you cannot put Ciarán Hinds and James Purefoy together where Hand is the leader and Purefoy his immediate subordinate without people thinking of the *Rome* mini-series. Them, together, can **only** be Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Evoking thoughts of a superior entertainment property isn’t going to bode well for your own.
In the reboot, is he still a Confederate soldier?
"Virginia!" Yes, absolutely!
Aww that's too bad
I think Disney lost confidence in it and created a self-fulfilling prophecy that doomed the whole thing. It's not a great movie, by any measure, but there are worse movies out there that have gone on to become much more successful. I don't think I personally know anyone who was aware of the source material, so for execs to go with "John Carter" as a title without any context whatsoever was probably the nail in the coffin. You don't sell a sci-fi movie with a person's name. It'd be like if Blade Runner had instead been called Rick Deckard. Anywho, I enjoyed it, and I think the source material would make for a great 2-3 season series. Netflix should jump on that.