Prior to last month, the biggest box-office failure of all time was either Cutthroat Island (which lost $96 million, adjusted to $147 million by inflation) or last years' Mars Needs Moms, a Disney movie that raked up $136 million in actual-dollar losses for them. The failure of Mars Needs Moms reportedly directly led Disney to change the title of John Carter Of Mars to just John Carter, a move that was roundly criticized at the time, and rightly so: unless you were one of the relatively small group of people who had read the 90-year-old books that the film was based on, the title John Carter offered you no descriptive power for the film or sense of wonder or, well, anything, really.
In light of the theatrical performance of John Carter ($184 million global box office), we expect the film to generate an operating loss of approximately $200 million during our second fiscal quarter ending March 31. As a result, our current expectation is that the studio segment will have an operating loss of between $80 and $120 million for the second quarter.
That move, alongside the widely-derided marketing for the film, is now being credited as causing John Carter to be the single biggest money-losing endeavour in the history of filmmaking. Most estimates of movie losses have to be weeded out through financial statements and shadowy budget reports (since most studios don't reveal marketing costs, or even real budgets most of the time), but to their credit, Disney has pretty much just come out and owned up to the film's failure.
The Hollywood Reporter points out that Disney is no stranger to this kind of loss, having had significant bombs in the last few years with not only Mars Needs Moms, but also Prince Of Persia: Sands Of Time and The Sorcerer's Apprentice. They do have what are bound to be hits in The Avengers and Brave coming up this summer, though, so there's little doubt that that'll help ease the pain from this bloody nose.
I've heard some passionate defenses of the film, and some reviews that were obviously taking glee in piling on a film that was unlikely to be a success, and a lot more middle-of-the-road, "that was ok, I guess" kind of comments. I haven't seen it for myself, but all of the attention it's been getting has at least sparked my attention, even if it has been for mostly negative reasons, and I'll be sure to check it out when it hits Blu-Ray, at least.
Assuming you didn't go see it, either, is the title "biggest bomb of all time" (which is unlikely to be on the DVD box), enough to get you curious enough to see the film when it hits a disc-based format?
You're the bomb
Oh dear oh dear oh dear.
Clear eyes, full hearts,
can'tcan lose!woooooooooooooops.
I knew it wasn't going to do well but I didn't think it was going to be this much of a giant bomb.
I would get it from Redbox possibly. I can't say I'm really interested in it, but the "biggest bomb of all time" peaks my interest a bit. That is unless there's another movie that comes out before this one hits DVD that bombs harder. Do you think Disney will push it to DVD as soon as possible or wait until the holidays to try to squeeze out whatever impulse buying there might be for it.
@phoenix534 said:
I see what you did there.
Holy crap that's bad. I'm probably gonna see it, I like comics and I got a gift card to the theater and I don't really like going to the theater. Unless there's something good running, but I can't find anything that's more interesting than this atm.
I still think they're calling this a little early. Give it one more week and we'll wait and see if it can make another decent amount of money overseas. I really loved the film and it is Disney's fault that the movie flopped because they didn't seem to want to market it properly.
Disney Exec: "ok, sure. it was a big bomb. but on the other hand... oh shit. that hand's empty."
I definitely will not purchase this film. I have no problem with buying films just because they're bad, but they have to B-movies or hilariously bad. John Carter is just your run-of-the-mill Disney action movie. It's commercial failure cannot convince me to movie that looks no different from that silly Prince of Persia flick.
@abacus said:
But on the other hand....Miramax....oh wait....
Not surprised there. The movie never really made me want to see it or at least learn a little more about it.
Remember when Taylor Kitsch was poised to be the next big action star? Whoops.
So when we're saying "bomb" we specifically mean "box office bomb"? In any other case, Prince of Persia doesn't look like a "bomb" to me. I don't think I understand this bussiness and should continue to stay out of it.
Wow, a movie that's almost made two hundred million dollars will be the biggest bomb of all time. It really says a lot about the movie industry and the obscene amount of money they spend on CG cartoons.
That's disappointing. I wanted to see this one but due to money issues, just couldn't afford it this month. Not that my one ticket would have saved the film anyway.
I still want to see the movie, I am surprised it didn't do better. Maybe it was overkill with the promos and the rising gas prices all combined just made it bad timing. Doubtful many movies will do that well this year, really, aside from possibly The Avengers and Prometheus. Just a guess. Not many are willing to plunk down the $9.00+ to see a movie anymore.
Probably won't be seeing this in the cinemas. Liked the comics but I agree with Alex that the genre moved forward and became a lot more interesting with Star Wars etc.
@dhechler said:
This is when Disney finally agrees to Kingdom Hearts 3 to recoup losses.
Also, I'm pretty sure Sands of Time wasn't a bomb, per se...
Man, that is awful. I will likely check it out on Blu-Ray as well.