John Carter Is One Of The Biggest Flops Of All Time; $200 Million Loss

[[wysiwyg_imageupload:964:]]Though fan response to John Carter has tended to be on the positive side, the movie just hasn’t been moving at the box office.

Opening weekend only saw $30 million in sales, which is not so good for a movie that cost $250 million to make with an estimated marketing budget of $100 million plus.

And the following weekend saw a 55% decline in sales with $13 million and change.

Now Disney has released a statement (via Deadline) with news that John Carter is projected to be at a $200 million loss for their second quarter. 

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. As we look forward to the second half of the year, we are excited about the upcoming releases of The Avengers and Brave, which we believe have tremendous potential to drive value for the Studio and the rest of the company.

This makes John Carter one of Hollywood’s biggest flops of all time, and it is estimated by some that the movie would need to make $600 million worldwide to break even.

The major problem cited with Carter among those who have not seen it seems to be lack of enthusiasm. Basically there is no buzz as most movie-goers just have no idea what the movie is about. Why should they care?

It was said that Disney knew well ahead of time that John Carter would tank, as the movie was a result of a previous administration. This could explain the less than stellar marketing campaign surrounding the movie; by watching the trailers you would actually have no idea that the movie is even set on Mars.

Now there has been talk of a sequel being written, but unless the movie generates more word of mouth buzz and/or a cult-like following — and I suppose an Exec at Disney takes a liking, any chance of a part 2 seems to be all but squashed.