John Carter - Page 11

Nah. ERB wrote about Mars based on a Saturday Evening Post version of Percival Lowell's fancifull Mars of canals and oceans. Then we built better telescopes and nobody ever saw canals again. Then we sent robots there and the place was as lifeless as the Moon.

The media loves to kick a dog when it's down and they keep talking about how much Disney screwed up blah blah. You know what? JC will make a killing when it's release on video and probably break even at least. This is a Disney family film and these movies rake up $$$ in the household so the folks who didn't see it in theaters will be buying it on BD/DVD. Either way now or later, it will recoup most of it's losses.

Break even point for this movie is reportedly between $500-$600 million dollars. It's made roughly a third of that. While Disney is known for a strong home video presence, that's a big chunk for even them to make up.

In addition, the way Hollywood studio economics works, they really count on strong, fast box office to get them through to the much slower home video revenue push, and when a big movie falls below expectations, there are a lot of lean days. This doesn't mean the Mouse House will suddenly close up shop, but it doesn't mean they don't get hurt. And it makes them gunshy to do another film in the franchise, or even similar films. Of all the studios, Disney is one that really hates to repeat mistakes.

The fact The Lorax is a hit and John Carter is a flop makes me want to stab everybody

Sometimes you can fool yourself there's some justice to box office results. Movies like Green Lantern crash and movies like Inception rake in the bucks, and it feels like maybe there's a supreme being out there, looking out for us. And then something like this happens: The Lorax is the year's biggest hit thus far, and everybody's dancing on John Carter's grave.

This is why we're all peasants in the kingdom of hacks.

So it's basically official at this point: John Carter had a perilous drop in its second weekend in theaters, disappointing all those of us who hoped it would turn out to have "legs" due to good word of mouth. Meanwhile, The Lorax is breaking box office records right and left. Of course, John Carter is a hit overseas, but that won't save it.

John Carter is not a great movie, and The Lorax is not a terrible movie. John Carter has huge moments of brilliance and some absolutely terrific direction and storytelling from Andrew Stanton, mixed in with a lot of stuff that feels shoe-horned in and goes nowhere. In fact, Carter is an overstuffed mess. Meanwhile, Lorax is on the low end of mediocre it has some fun moments too, but it takes the lazy, boring choice at every turn. (The Onceler? He's a bad guitar player who tries to sell Thneeds by busking. Sigh.).......

Personally neither movie had me wanting to see it. I heard The Lorax had fairly poor song and lyrics, but John Carter seemed like a cliche lone hero movie with aliens on a different planet. Perhaps I might like it if I were to go see it but the trailer I've been seeing for the last six months did not make it seem like something I would want to see.

Yes but kids movie...means at least 3 tickets even if only one person wants to see it... and it's new so... As for this year's biggest hit...something tells me The Dark Knight Rises and Prometheus will give the Lorax a run for his money ...Disney got it wrong with their marketing and imo this film should have never cost 250 millions. Taylor Kitsch is no Johnny Depp.

Agreed. Like you, I have no desire to see, or even rent, either The Lorax or John Carter. If those films are the best Hollywood can do, it should be ashamed of itself, it seems to me. I am anxiously awaiting The Hunger Games but given my high expectations, even it may disappoint me.

Yeah your right on kids movie. In my household 3 always, if i go 4. As for Disney and marketing JC yeah I agree. Disney can take the hit but they won't be happy about it.

My coworkers just recommended John Carter, but I'm still not likely to see it. But we all agreed that the trailer was awful in an attempt to sell the movie.

Shouldn't the trailer be good in an attempt to sell the movie?

I am looking forward to watching this on bluray with my two daughters and wife. They have little interest after seeing the trailers and no buzz from their peers. If Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez where the two leads there would be some interest - but then I would not be interested.

Maybe why they have been around so long??



+1



HEY NOW!
Young Mr. Bieber is OK with me...he has good taste in cars (see West Coast Customs episode with the tricked-out CTS-V coupe).

Heh.

It is clichéd, but that shouldn't stop a film from being successful (at least financially). Plot-wise, there isn't anything in Avatar that we haven't seen in Dances With Wolves or Last Samurai (disenchanted soldier finding his destiny in a foreign/alien culture). But that didn't stop it from becoming the top grossing film in history. Nor did it stop Cameron's previous film from doing the same, despite its cliché ridden plot (amidst the backdrop of an epic disaster, two kids from opposite sides of the tracks fall in love). So while I agree that the John Carter story is a cliché at this point, I don't see it as a legitimate excuse for a film not succeeding, artistically and/or financially.

Long story short, this is a pretty darned good adventure story and film that got left behind. I'm glad that the effort was made. I'm disappointed that the execution of it's debut was so flawed. Those of us who are familiar with the mythology are no where near the prime theater going demo and if you're unfamiliar with the material then you're sceptical or cynical...either of which will probably keep you away.

gwsat...you should at least rent this one. It's not the mess that some critics claim. It's actually a well thought out story that captures the spirit of the source material and offers quite a nice ride. I have no familiarity with The Hunger Games and from what I've seen of the trailers and the story, have no attraction for a teen angst Battle Royale. However, I will at least rent it based on some of your comments (and others).

I went into this movie thinking it would be "eh" at best and pretty bad at worst and was surprised. I enjoyed it. Other than the cheeseball costume design, I thought it was good and too bad that so many people aren't going to see it due to the crap marketing for it.

disney:

j.c. and lone ranger in the same year.
wtf were they thinking.

most of us predicted that these were sure money losers given their inflated budgets.

Disney should definitely get away from Mars based movies . . .

MARS NEED MOMS

I guess I went to see JC with somewhat lowly expectations and I enjoyed the heck out of it! Very entertaining. Well rendered green people with expressive eyes, pretty good converted 3D (especially after seeing the converted Star Wars, which looked suprisingly flat to me), a knockout princess, and a clever wrap-around story.

May be seeing it again. Or at least have on Blu-ray for a nice escapist diversion.

Well said. I read the books last summer, and while watching the film, I kept thinking how well John Carter had been translated to the screen. The adventurous, heroic spirit of the books was well preserved.

Well said!

From what I heard, they didn't want to call it "A Princess of Mars" because the word "princess" alienates boys. So the original plan was to call it "John Carter of Mars". But then "Mars Needs Moms" tanked, and Disney thought the public didn't like to see the word "Mars", so they took it out. Hence, "John Carter".

They seem like idiots. Did they really think a title such as "Venus needs Moms" would have been better? Where the hell did they get the idea that the word "Mars" was the problem, instead of the title as a whole??

The title is horrid. It evokes images of Jimmy Carter, and peanuts and his goofy brother.

don't forget the hunger games. lots of good buzz going on with this release.

it wasn't the word mars that made moms stink its that no one cares or wants to see a movie that has anything to do with mars. how many mars attack movies are there out there. quite a few.


also why would anyone care about someone named john carter?

Dino De Laurentiis changed the title of his adaptation of Red Dragon to Manhunter because his previous film, Year of the Dragon, was a bomb.

A lot of it is superstition, others some weird marketing rationalization.

lol!