That article on how Disney screwed up is TOTAL crap. The movie was a flop becasue they didn't release toys and a video game??
I have very rarely seen people rave about a movie tie in video game, they are usually awful and not well received in general, that is complete nonsense made up by fans to excuse the film not doing well.
Avatar had a game out a few days before the movie, but Avatar is in a different league, Avatar wasn't successful becasue it was a brilliant story, it was successful becasue it was a stunning film, that was using pioneering technology and the first of it's kind and people wanted to see that, pretty much everyone says the story was okay, basically Pocahontas, but it was amazing looking, plus the fact it was James Cameron led to it being successful, I have Avatar on DVD, I saw it 3 times in the cinema and have never watched it on DVD, just becasue it is a cinema movie, part of the appeal was the huge screen and 3D.
And while a March release date for John Carter isn't great, lots of other movies were released in March that didn't bomb, as they weren't boring movies.
One of the articles also says the movie had extensive marketing costs?
Totally blaming the failure of the movie on marketing is stupid. It wasn't a good movie on top of any marketing problems it had, thats why everyone that saw the movie and rated it 49% think it's crap on Rotten Tomatoes, the problem isn't just that not enough people saw it, it's that of half the people that did, they were bored by it, you can't just ignore that fact and blame marketing.
I would suggest that you read "John Carter And The gods Of Hollywood" for the complete story about what happened to "John Carter" and the several main reasons for its failure, written by Michael Sellers if you honestly care about what really happened with "John Carter," or if you might just be curious about what contributes to the success or failure of a movie.
This is a quote from the Amazon description of Mr Seller's book:
"How did Disney's film become a calamity of historic proportions? Michael Sellers, a Hollywood filmmaker himself, saw the disaster approaching and fought to save the project - but without success. In John Carter and the Gods of Hollywood, Sellers details every blunder and betrayal that led to the doom of the motion picture - and that left countless Hollywood careers in the wreckage.
JOHN CARTER AND THE GODS OF HOLLYWOOD examines every aspect of Andrew Stanton's adaptation and Disney's marketing campaign and seeks to answer the question: What went wrong? It includes a history of Hollywood's 100 year effort to bring the film to the screen, and examines the global fan movement spawned by the film."
As I said, "John Carter" isn't a movie for everyone, but I believe that far more people never saw it simply because they either had never heard of the character or Burroughs' Mars series, things which Disney Studios could have done far more to correct than they actually did, or they relied solely on the reviews of those critics who gave the movie a bad review without bothering to see for themselves, or both. Your experience to the contrary, I have never talked to a single person, including those who never heard of either the character or the books before seeing the movie, as well as people who are not science fiction/fantasy fans, who didn't enjoy the movie once they saw it.
As I said from the beginning, I waited 5o years to see this movie, and I feel that it was worth the wait. That in no way says that it was perfect, and I was, frankly, disappointed with some of the changes that Stanton made in the original story and in Mr Kitch's portrayal of Carter in general. Over all, though, I do believe that it was a good movie, and I also believe that it wasn't given the consideration that it deserved. And, finally, I sincerely hope that I don't have to wait another 50 years to see the sequel, but if that's what it takes, I'm more than willing to wait. I like the story that much.
And consider yourself uninvited to my "Welcome Back To Barsoom" party when the time comes.
