John Carter of Mars 2012 Film

[Penguin]

I don't think that John Carter losing money has much to do with critics. It's gotten fairly average if not especially positive reviews. I think Disney banked too much on what is kinda a fringe property, outside the main blockbuster season. John Carter has virtually no name recognition outside sci-fi readers... and even among the newer of them knowledge is scarce. On top of that, cross-genre pics have a hard time finding an audience (e.g. Cowboys vs. Aliens). Most people who I talked to had no idea what it was about, even after seeing a trailer, and what they saw in the trailer often didn't grab them enough to find out. Plus, there weren't enough explosions in the trailers to attract the teen male set that flocks to pointless FX summer films. So, timing fail, marketing fail... doesn't look good. Too bad. You could get some cool sci-fi/fantasy romps outta that series.

[JB0]

They should've done the trailer like this:

"From the creator of Tarzan! John Carter of Mars. Coming soon to a theater on Earth."

THAT is how you sell a movie based on a hundred-year-old Edgar Rice Burroughs novel.

[Jasonc]

I agree it was very "mysterious" in the previews. I didn't even know what it was about, but in watching it, it was well worth the ticket price. I've seen it twice, and it was just as fun the second time. It's a shame that it didn't do well at all. It doesn't look like they were planning on doing a sequel, but in my opinion, this is probably one of the better movies to do this bad.

[Omegablue]

A lot of great stuff isn't popular. While a lot of idiotic films are popular... like Transformers.

Let's be honest. If Macross were to ever be made into a live action film by an intelligent director, it sadly wouldn't be making as much Dollar as a Bay abortion.

Humans more easily entertained with explosions and gore. Hence why it was easy for the Roman Empire to rule it's people through the arenas.

[BeyondTheGrave]

A lot of great stuff isn't popular. While a lot of idiotic films are popular... like Transformers.

Let's be honest. If Macross were to ever be made into a live action film by an intelligent director, it sadly wouldn't be making as much Dollar as a Bay abortion.

Humans more easily entertained with explosions and gore. Hence why it was easy for the Roman Empire to rule it's people through the arenas.

My response to this statement is James Cameron's Avatar.

$2,782,275,172

Edited March 21, 2012 by BeyondTheGrave

[Old_Nash]

3Possible facts that helped in the failure:

1- It's a Disney movie filme.

2- It was rewritten to look like a "Pirates of the Caribbean" on Mars.

3- They took all the good passages of the book and inserted things that do not have there.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Old_Nash

[Omegablue]

My response to this statement is James Cameron's Avatar.

$2,782,275,172

That's cause of blue sex.

[Dynaman]

That's cause of blue sex.

And competant marketing. Disney supposedly spent a small (large?) fortune marketing John Carter, could have fooled me.

[Penguin]

Yeah, I don't get that either. Every report I've read reports how the millions and millions spent on marketing ballooned the already massive budget. All I recall are a few generic-looking trailers that didn't really describe the film and the changing title (to drop the "of Mars"). Where did all this cash go?

[Omegablue]

And competant marketing. Disney supposedly spent a small (large?) fortune marketing John Carter, could have fooled me.

You could very well be right. The movie as much as it was grand, compare to others in it's field, lacked alot of merchandising to sell the tickets. Not only toys, but like the usual comic books (Unless I missed them), games, and adverts on junk food.

Then again the title is horrible. So miss leading. And the poster weren't much better. Is it another film about Greek myths, is a Sherlock Holmes spinned with sci-fi,

Should of kept the name Mars in it.

As well these days most people watch movies if a director's or actor's name is marketed above the film's title. Which this film didn't have, and it's a real pity that people base there views on just a known name.

[Kelsain]

Just got back from seeing this, and I was rather pleased with it. It was silly, but fun.

I think one of the bigger problems with these films is the "scifi language." So you've got a drink that can allow you character to understand the language - but it won't translate title or units... It's forgivable in the source material, and is easier to follow in text. But in dialogue, amid battles & explosions, it's just too clunky.

(null)

[Jasonc]

But that's stuff you take issue with after you watch it. I don't think that contributed to the poor sales. I wanted to see this, and did, but right before seeing it, I had absolutely no clue what it was about. That is a problem, especially in thi day and age, where people want the previews to give the entire plot away before even seeing the movie. It's one thing that drives me nuts about previews these days, where they give away every great line, and every good action sequence. What ends up being left by the time you get to the actual movie, is how the characters get from point A to Z. While the previews for this movie didn't do that, people wanna know, and the lack of proper advertising really hurt it.

[Omegablue]

I think one of the bigger problems with these films is the "scifi language." So you've got a drink that can allow you character to understand the language - but it won't translate title or units... It's forgivable in the source material, and is easier to follow in text.

Well at least it avoided how everyone speaks English in the whole universe of the Thor film.

Edited March 23, 2012 by Omegablue

[Hoptimus]

I really liked this film. I felt that it stayed true to ERB and it was fun. Blu Ray/DVD comes out on 06/05/2012 in the USA.

[christ]

This movie was awesome. It was the 1980 Flash Gordon of this generation. It will be on cable all the time because it will be cheap to run and twenty years from now, people will still be talking about it. The audience in my theatre applauded at the end. It was that good.

[Omegablue]

Imagine if it had a tiny bit of the Avengers' marketing...

Edited May 26, 2012 by Omegablue

[eugimon]

Lol, you think carter didn't get hyped enough?

[Omegablue]

Lol, you think carter didn't get hyped enough?

Lol, nope.

Certainly not on my side of the world. It came unnoticed, and sadly left unnoticed...

[Kicker773]

I'm buying this thing on Blu Ray and watching it again in 7.1 surround sound. For some reason i really really liked the film. The whole idea I guess of going to another planet starting a new life thing via avatar intrigued me.

[Vepariga]

Yeah I liked it too,was good film. I'll grab it on blu-ray.

[Negotiator]

Finally got around to watching this and it was a lot of fun. The advertising was bad... I remember one of the commercials saying something like, "before star wars, there was John Carter..."...what??? It made it look desperate, and got a lot of negative views because of it's sales, therefore it must be "bad"...

[BeyondTheGrave]

Just watched it. I thought it was really good. Long but good.

I think the biggest thing is that all the tech in the world just works and doesn't have a long winded explanation behind it. Which is fine but for someone who likes the explanations they probably wouldn't be able to get into the movie.

[Graham]

Still struggling to get through the DVD. About halfway through.

Loved the John Carter books as a kid, but the movie just changes too much for the worse and many of the visuals are not at all like I always imagined them.

Graham

[PetarB]

I saw it again recently, and still enjoyed it. Certainly the art direction, while beautiful, did not match my expectations of Barsoom. Although that's always a problem with literary interpretations.

[Frogze]

Thanks for putting this one back on my radar, actually all the lame advertising about this movie made me totally ignore it.