If you have been reading this blog for the last few months (which is as long as it has been going) you will recall that I was very enthusiastic about Disney’s John Carter. You may also be aware that John Carter cost a sizable portion of Disney’s movie division their jobs.
John Carter has been maligned as a bomb – but is that a fair assessment? My best movie buddy and I watched the DVD this weekend, and we agreed that the movie was (1) awesome; and (2) flew by. It is over two hours long but feels like a much shorter film. This is due in large part to the fast pace. The action never lets up. The film’s worldwide take was an impressive $282 million. That is not pocket change.
Here is the rub: John Carter cost $250 million to make. It cost another $100 million to advertise – not that this advertising was apparent in even the slightest degree to me, and I was looking forward to the film.
I can’t believe that John Carter can be called a bomb with a straight face. A box office bomb makes little money. John Carter made lots of it, but Disney forgot to control costs. Any product launch (and that is exactly what a movie is) will fail if expenses spiral out of sight.
I thought that John Carter was much better than Prometheus, which I also enjoyed. Prometheus has not bombed, but it cost only half of what John Carter did. That is a big factor.
If you would like to help Disney recoup some its money, the DVD is available at Amazon here.
MGD