John Carter Forum

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  Just going by the incoherent  trailers and the insane budget which on record is $250 Million but is most likely closer to $300 Million or some reports have it as high as $350 Million just makes this movie seem like a disaster waiting to happen. 
 Science Fiction films are typically a really risky bet if not based on an existing and popular franchise.  Throw in that it involves space and Mars without Arnold Schwarzenegger getting his ass there, it just seems like it is on track to be the biggest bomb in cinematic history.   Granted I am not familiar with John Carter of Mars or the popularity of the book or possible books so the audience might be huge but I doubt it is Harry Potter or even Dune big. 
 Then again I might be wrong.  I thought Rise of the Planet of the Apes was going to bomb and Green Lantern was going to be a huge success.   This thread has nothing to do with the quality of John Carter because I think it looks interesting to say the least.  Instead this thread is about whether John Carter will join the ranks of such epic bombs like Mars Needs Moms, Cutthroat Island, and The Adventures of Pluto Nash.

things are not looking good for this movie. not good at all. disney must really be sweating it.

im guessing that disney's sheer marketing power will keep it from setting reccords, but it will still cost them a lot of money. kind of like green lantern did: not anticipated, not well received, but the distributor's marketing umph gives it grosses that might be considered passable if it weren't for the budget. only this will do a little worse than green lantern

Nothing will ever beat Waterworld.

If it does wind up costing $350 million it will be the most expensive movie ever eclipsing 1963's Cleopatra which, when adjusted for inflation, cost $320 million dollars.

For a film that's rumored to have cost so much, John Carter isn't getting much press that I can see, at least. I was under the impression that the film's budget was no higher than the last Conan reboot (about $90 M).

@FinalDasa: Waterworld actually turned a profit.

I hope it won't but yeah it most likely could become a gigantic box office bomb due to the fact that nobody really remembers the character and that it's not being marketed very well.

Jesus $300 million?

The movie looks interesting, I had no idea it had such an astronomical budget. I've seen very little marketing for it so even if I want to be interested in what the movie is there aren't a lot of venues open for me to learn more about it.

Movie looks promising, especially considering my love for Taylor Kitsch and the director's back-catalog. It's definitely a risk, but, then again, new big-budget Sci-Fi can pay off really, really well.

@Red: I thought you were going to link to Star Wars: A New Hope and The Matrix.  Not films from the guy that resurrected Batman and the guy who specializes in big budget blockbusters.

I hadn't heard of John Carter before I heard Matt and Alex discuss it on the podcast and I just watched the trailer there. It seems like it could be good, I didn't have a clue what Avatar was about before it came out except that it had a MASSIVE budget, maybe this can do the same.

@not_a_bumblebee: Those work too. I wasn't saying that they were completely unexpected hits, but they were risks, and more recent than the films you mentioned.

Man dose that means its gotta be/do Battlefield Earth bad? Nah maybe not that bad but man when I go this looks absolutely soulless you have a problem.

Also the Queen of mars chick looks NOTHING like the artwork ive seen major dissapointment

Due to the marketing blitz that Disney has thrown on this one,I think it should be able to make at least $130-150 million worldwide in ticket sales, which still wouldn't even match the budget. I wouldn't count it out yet, but I Am Number Four (granted, a much smaller and more modestly budgeted film) flopped for Disney this year, and there's really no reason why this one won't either, unless it gets stellar reviews and word of mouth.

Will it be the biggest bomb of all-time? Not so sure, since it could probably just break even after merchandising, ticket & DVD sales/home video stuff. But thing's aren't looking great.

I think it looks terrible so I don't really care if it bombs one way or another. But I've hardly seen any advertising for it, so I think at the most it will make its budget back.

Apparently it's closer to $400 million for the production budget! Battleship is supposed to be $300 million, but that's 33% less than John Carter.

Ad Age: Also next summer is "Battleship," which is on track to become one of Universal's most expensive movies ever. The first trailer was just released -- what else can we expect?

Mr. Goldstine: "Battleship" is a big, exciting film for Universal, the kind of tentpole film that I've loved working on in the past. I've gotten to see a lot of what is in the works for the film, and I'm looking forward to becoming even more involved in the campaign. But it's not as expensive as you might think. It's about 33% less than [Disney's] "John Carter of Mars."HOLY SHIT! This is the next Waterworld.

Probably be the biggest flop in decades!

@AssInAss said:

Apparently it's closer to $400 million for the production budget! Battleship is supposed to be $300 million, but that's 33% less than John Carter.

Ad Age: Also next summer is "Battleship," which is on track to become one of Universal's most expensive movies ever. The first trailer was just released -- what else can we expect?

Mr. Goldstine: "Battleship" is a big, exciting film for Universal, the kind of tentpole film that I've loved working on in the past. I've gotten to see a lot of what is in the works for the film, and I'm looking forward to becoming even more involved in the campaign. But it's not as expensive as you might think. It's about 33% less than [Disney's] "John Carter of Mars."HOLY SHIT! This is the next Waterworld.

Probably be the biggest flop in decades!

How the fuck does Battleship cost $300 million? Who decided a movie based on a board game warranted that much money? I would have given it $50 million, tops.

@WilliamHenry said:

@AssInAss said:

Apparently it's closer to $400 million for the production budget! Battleship is supposed to be $300 million, but that's 33% less than John Carter.

Ad Age: Also next summer is "Battleship," which is on track to become one of Universal's most expensive movies ever. The first trailer was just released -- what else can we expect?

Mr. Goldstine: "Battleship" is a big, exciting film for Universal, the kind of tentpole film that I've loved working on in the past. I've gotten to see a lot of what is in the works for the film, and I'm looking forward to becoming even more involved in the campaign. But it's not as expensive as you might think. It's about 33% less than [Disney's] "John Carter of Mars."HOLY SHIT! This is the next Waterworld.

Probably be the biggest flop in decades!

How the fuck does Battleship cost $300 million? Who decided a movie based on a board game warranted that much money? I would have given it $50 million, tops.

So is Battleship just three hours of non-sop CGI explosions with maybe five minutes of Liam Neeson?

More importantly, does Liam Neeson punch an alien battleship to death at any point?

If the latter is true, then the movie is worth its budget, mo matter the cost.

@Hailinel said:

@WilliamHenry said:

@AssInAss said:

Apparently it's closer to $400 million for the production budget! Battleship is supposed to be $300 million, but that's 33% less than John Carter.

Ad Age: Also next summer is "Battleship," which is on track to become one of Universal's most expensive movies ever. The first trailer was just released -- what else can we expect?

Mr. Goldstine: "Battleship" is a big, exciting film for Universal, the kind of tentpole film that I've loved working on in the past. I've gotten to see a lot of what is in the works for the film, and I'm looking forward to becoming even more involved in the campaign. But it's not as expensive as you might think. It's about 33% less than [Disney's] "John Carter of Mars."HOLY SHIT! This is the next Waterworld.

Probably be the biggest flop in decades!

How the fuck does Battleship cost $300 million? Who decided a movie based on a board game warranted that much money? I would have given it $50 million, tops.

So is Battleship just three hours of non-sop CGI explosions with maybe five minutes of Liam Neeson?

More importantly, does Liam Neeson punch an alien battleship to death at any point?

If the latter is true, then the movie is worth its budget, mo matter the cost.

He better say:

The utter failure of any of the marketing to connect with anybody reminds me of GREEN LANTERN.

This is going to bomb like Hiroshima. They should have just kept it as JOHN CARTER OF MARS. At least there's some context in that title.