“Have you $300 million?”John Carter, having cost $350 million to make and market and earning only about $30 million its opening weekend (albeit another $70 million internationally), appears likely to join the grand pantheon of colossal box office flops. This New York Times article from earlier this week was already pulling out the Ishtar comparisons.
Nevertheless, the movie has its pocket of fanboys who would like to see a sequel, including this Forbes writer who is openly campaigning for a follow-up to get made. To that end, John Carter fans have taken to the place where pointless causes go to languish annoyingly and mostly die (except for that one about Betty White getting to host SNL): Facebook.
The Facebook group called “Take Me Back To Barsoom, I Want John Carter To Have a Sequel” boasts about 2,500 members, a laughably small number for a group trying to convince Disney to ignore losing several hundred million dollars to invest heavily in a similar unprofitable project. But, hey, they made a trailer!
Director Andrew Stanton, who also did Finding Nemo and Wall-E for Pixar, has already begun work on the sequel and all involved parties would likely come back if Disney wanted to give it another go. Of course, that ignores economic realities and when a studio sinks a third of a billion dollars into a film, that’s not a consideration easily ignored. A Hollywood Reporter piece speculated that the movie will need to earn another $600 million for a sequel to happen. That’s only $240,000 per Facebook group member. You guys got this!
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Just go the Disney cartoon route and Straight-to-DVD that shit. Perfect crappy actor to take over the role of John Carter for a S-T-DVD? Cam Gigandet.
Let’s be honest here, they already had kind of a crappy actor playing John Carter. No need for replacements.
this sucks, John Carter was awesome, I think this is more of a case of the promos being shitty, I remember the first promo early in 2010 was awesome and it was called john Carter of Mars, and then they changed what they were selling. People should see it, this movie rocked!
Do you think Disney has realized that they could have saved millions of dollars in marketing and just said “Hey, McNulty is in this,” and the movie would have made twice as much money its opening weekend.
is there a way to have pics show here instead of a link? well, anyways, Mr Breaking Bad is really trying hard now to get moar monies [i268.photobucket.com]
I bet the porn version, “John Cocksucker of Mars”, will make a ton of money. There you go Disney…that will show you how silly you were to drop the “of Mars” part.
We all know this ain’t happening. I’d see it, but it ain’t happening.
I’ve read similar article in other movie site too. I don’t know… Haven’t seen the movie yet. But the way you write the article… it feels like you’re making fun of their passion in the movie. You do realize you’re a movie website? Aren’t passion for movies are something we share here? So you don’t find the movie is good, but cynically point out their passion by making fan trailers are a bit sad.
I’d much rather see a John Carter sequel than over half the movies nominated for “Best Picture”, including the winner, “The Artist”, which to date has only made $37.7 million after 15 weeks…
John Carter been out a week, so why are we “crucifying” John Carter? It is a very good movie, and comparing it to “Istar” or other such crap is a disservice to film……..What is wrong with those people who share this kind of mentality?
I saw it, I agree with the people who liked it. I don’t think it’s about crucifying the movie, it’s more about crucifying the studio for blowing the marketing campaign that bad. You’d be hard pressed to do a worse job marketing a movie than they did with this one, from the title change to the trailers to the commercials to the posters.
John Carter was GREAT ! I saw it 4 times. I just saw Hunger games and really wouldnt watch it again.
“2,500 members, a laughably small number”. Well how does 7,125 sound? Let’s compare that to 10 likes for the the Star Wars new trilogy demand. And now internationally, John Carter has made $255 million. I read over and over about people going back to see it 2, 3, 4 and 5 times. I’m not a huge fan of Edgar Rice Burroughs, and had hardly heard of Taylor Kitsch. But I am a fan of Star Wars, and I have to say that this was WAY better than Phantom Menace. The plot was complicated but not incomprehensible–in fact, there’s so much to it, that it gets better the 2nd time around. I’d like to see it a third time.
Yeah, I enjoyed it quite a bit too. Definitely twice as good as any of the Star Wars episodes 1-3. But supposedly Disney still lost $200 million on it, so probably don’t bet on a sequel.
Oh my how I loved this movie!! So entertaining, funny, visually stunning … I honestly have been shocked by the reviews of this vs. Hunger Games. I was so totally underwhelmed by The Hunger Games, and I LOVED John Carter. Bizarre! I definitely agree that the studio completely flubbed the ad campaign. I didn’t even want to see it because of the posters and commercials, but I am thrilled that I got over that and went! Will see it again and again. This whole mess reminds me a lot of how FOX ruined Firefly’s chances of success in the same ways…
Just saw the movie and it was great, the only reason it failed because of the ads. they were horrible. It did not tell me anything about the movie the only thing the ads. told me that the movie is better that Avatar. I do not know why movies try to compare themselves with other movies.
2 words BAD MARKETING, is a good movie.
if dysney used:
… Based on the Barsoom series by Edgar Rice Burroughs, the same creator of Tarzan! …
it would sell 5 times more…
definely BAD Marketing, and not a bad movie
I noticed that you mentioned the Facebook Fan group ITake me back to Barsoom ! I want a John Carter sequel back in March and we are still going strong. DVD sales were #1 last week. John Carter is a good film, under appreciated by the public at large but that is changing as people are seeing the movie and loving it. Give John Carter a chance. Its worth a trip to Barsoom
Let me say to Christmas Ape i think you rather insult the fans then say why you dont like the movie because i bet you never watched the movie before you wrote this article which i think is rather stupid of you.To tell you the truth i loved the movie John Carter and i am one of the fans that are trying to get a sequel to John Carter and for your information the 2500 is off by 7000 as their are 9500 of us now which to you is a puny number but we are getting more people everyday.
Great movie, bring on the sequel!
Go to Take Me Back to Barsoom! and http://www.backtobarsoom.com to learn about the sequel movement.
I saw the movie 12 times at the theater, five in IMAX 3D. This movie is fun, entertaining, and spectacular. It’s a pulp sci-fi planetary romance movie, and for its genre, Director Andrew Stanton has made the perfect movie. This wasn’t intended to be Citizen Kane – it’s pulp sci-fi and for that purpose it could not be any better!
And by the way, home video sales are going really well!
This article was written just after the movie opened. A lot has happened since then. People all over the world have discovered this under rated gem. It is a great ride and I urge anyone who has not seen it to take a look. And don’t pay attention to the negative comments about the acting. I’ve seen this film a number of times and can’t understand the trashing of the actors. Every cast member did a decent job with their roles. Even Taylor is more than adequate in the title role.
Ya i truely agree the reason this movie tanked in the theaters is the lack of advertising. They could of had better made ads, the youtube video up top was probably better then the real one. They could of made people now it was more like grown up Pirates of the Caribbean, then a snow white type movie. If Disney Marketed it better i truly think we wouldn’t be having this please bring us a sequel plea. While i wouldn’t call the actors Oscar worthy they most defenitally did a excellent Job working as one to produce a Excellent movie. If needed be they could do a cartoon movie/tv series but im hoping something happens to let them bring a sequel in this form.
Great Movie don’t see why It didn’t do well in box office except for poor advertising. It’s far better than twilight series. John Carter has a great story and a sequel would be a good thing.
This was far a greater movie than others that got sequels and/or received Academy Award nominations. It look like lots of people, including me, have seen ‘John Carter of Mars’ more than once. Great special effects and acting. This movie deserves a sequel. Disney goofed with the marketing.
Not sure why it didn;t do well either. I love this movie and would love a sequel. Bad marketing like others say maybe. I thought the actor that played him was good and would hate to see another take his place. Seen this movie 50 times I bet. ade me want to read the series again.
Lets remember something else here folks, once upon a time back in the 60s there was this crappy, campy little science fiction series that died in the middle of its third season. Yet the show and its characters were such a hit with a small, hardcore group of fans that it eventually generated a small cartoon series, eleven big screen movies, not to mention (so far) four spinoff series, over 200 novels, and several billion dollars in merchandizing.
In the world of science fiction fandom anything can happen, anything at all.