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Tag: John Carter

  • Disney Witholds John Carter from Netflix, Redbox

    Disney Witholds John Carter from Netflix, Redbox

    Did you see director Andrew Stanton’s big-budget science fiction epic “John Carter” when it arrived in theaters earlier this year? If you didn’t, don’t feel bad, as it would appear that movie-goers avoided the film in droves, effectively transforming the potential blockbuster into one of the biggest financial disasters in cinematic history. According to the Daily Mail, Disney has stated that they anticipate a $200 million loss on the picture, which they’d hoped would become a huge money-making franchise. For some reason, folks just weren’t that interested.

    Although the film sported some impressive special effects and a strong cast — Mark Strong, Bryan Cranston, and Dominic West all leant their talents to the production — the film couldn’t find a foothold with audiences. In an effort to recoup some of their losses, Disney released the film to DVD and Blu-ray in no time flat. Since the movie was a box office disaster, it would only make sense that the studio is hoping to make some money back courtesy of the home video market. This may explain why Disney is withholding the film from services like Netflix and Redbox.

    According to Time, the company has instituted a 28-day embargo on the film’s arrival to the aforementioned movie rental services, hoping that those who passed on the flick during its theatrical run will drop upwards of $20 to bring it home on the format of their choice. Here’s the thing: If they didn’t shell out their hard-earned entertainment dollars on an overpriced theatrical ticket, why in the world would they drop that sort of cash to purchase a copy? If Disney hopes to any of their money back, selling copies to Netflix and Redbox, as well as traditional brick-and-morar video stores, seems like the logical thing to do.

    In order to circumvent the delay, the companies have taken to retailers such as Target and Walmart in order to secure copies, which, during the first week on the shelves, tend to go for about $17. Given how many copies both will require to meet the demands of their customers, Disney could be well on its way to seeing “John Carter” make some scratch. Maybe not as much as they’d hope for, but enough to ease the pain of such a huge loss.

    Some Netflix subscribers have already received their copy of “John Carter” in the mail. Redbox, meanwhile, plans to have their kiosks stocked with the flick by June 12th. Although I happened to enjoy the film, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s one that you should rush out and buy sight unseen. However, if you want to enjoy the story without having to destroy your eyes staring at all of that overpriced CGI, take a trip to the local library and snag a copy of the original Edgar Rice Burroughs story. The last time I checked, it was still a good read.

    Box Office Mojo states that “John Carter” has currently made just $282,494,595 worldwide. Given that the production budget was $250 million, a total which doesn’t include promotional costs, it could be a while before Disney breaks even.

  • Disney May Adopt 28-Day Waiting Period For Redbox

    Disney May Adopt 28-Day Waiting Period For Redbox

    For those of you wonder where John Carter is on Redbox, you may be shocked to find out the the company who made the film, Disney, has gone the way of Universal and Fox to wait 28 days after the film is released on DVD to make wholesale copies available to Redbox. Universal and Fox (and now, Disney) have disagreed with studios like Paramount and Lionsgate, who release their titles for Redbox at the same time as the DVD.

    Some think that renting the movie cheaply with inspire those that liked the film to make the DVD purchase. Universal and Fox think that the cheap alternative is ruining DVD sales. Warner Bros. is another that falls into this camp, saying that they will extend the delay period to 56 days before offering wholesale terms to rental companies.

    As far as Disney goes, they have not made any announcement as to whether or not they will adopt the 28 day delay. But Redbox lovers will notice a distinct lack of John Carter on the new releases page. According to Redbox via Deadline Hollywood, “Redbox has always worked with Disney on a per title basis, without a contract. We will be sourcing John Carter through alternative means.” “Alternative means” indicates that they just buy the DVD from retailers to offer at their kiosks.

    Deadline Hollywood is reporting that Disney CEO Bob Igor said to analyst in February that they are in discussions to go with the 28 day window before offering Redbox cheaper terms. It is apparent that they have since adopted that strategy and Redbox will now be forced to pay full purchase price for all of Disney’s Films. Igor added that it would be wise for them to protect DVD sales as much as they can. The market has been in steady decline recently.

    Redbox is planning to have the DVD in kiosks next Tuesday. They have not said why they had the delay, knowing that they would have had to pay full price for the release anyway.

    Do they not realize they are also competing with pirates? It seems to me that most people only splurge on a DVD if they think the movie is really good. Hollywood now produces more movies a year than anytime in history. If everyone shelled out $20+ every time a new movie was released, we would all be broke. It may also lead to Redbox raising prices on new releases. Also not a good thing.

  • “The Hunger Games” Has Devoured The Box Office!

    The young teen book “The Hunger Games” has proven to be a box office stud, opening with the 3rd highest opening of all time and the highest non summer release of all time.

    The Hunger Games has devoured the box office

    beating out other top movies such as Spider-Man 3 ($151.1 million in 2007), The Twilight Saga: New Moon ($142.8 million in 2009) and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1 ($138.1 million last year). It came just short of the top 2 which were The Dark Knight $158.4 millionin its July 2008 and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 with $169.2 million in summer 2011.

    “It was the perfect storm. Having the first film in a franchise to be so gigantic is amazing. We had a great book and a great director in Gary Ross,” said Lionsgate president of marketing Tim Palen.

    Rounding out the weekends top 5 was 80’s remake 21 Jump Street at #2 with $21.3 million. Environmental message movie “Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax” at #3 with $13.1 million, at #4 is Disney’s massive flop “John Carter” with $5 million, and rounding out the top 5 is the incredible action flick “Act of Valor” with $2.1 million.

    The Hunger games continues the trend this week of critics and fans alike enjoying a film. on Rotten Tomatoes the film is scoring an 85% from critics and an 88% from fans.

    (image)@WhatTheEverdeen
    Mrs. Odair     Don’t be surprised when The Hunger Games wins everything at the movie awards.(image) 1 hour ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@BenSavage
    Ben Savage    Just saw “Hunger Games” and really enjoyed it. I can see why everyone is so excited about this movie. The acting & cinematography are great.(image) 5 hours ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@DavidSpade
    David Spade    In the hunger games,i like that in the city where the tributes take a train to , everyone looks like @katyperry. #andsomegagas(image) 10 hours ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • John Carter is a Colossal Flop!

    John Carter is a Colossal Flop!

    The Walt Disney Co. expects to lose over $200 million for the month of March after John Carter turned out to be a colossal flop.

    Disney said “John Carter” has brought in about $184 million in ticket sales worldwide so far. But ticket sales are split roughly in half with theater owners. The movie’s production budget is estimated to be about $250 million with about $100 million more spent on marketing.

    John Carter (also John Carter of Mars) is a 2012 American epic science fiction action film that tells the first interplanetary adventure of John Carter, the heroic protagonist of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ 11-volume Barsoom series of novels (1912–43). The film is the live-action debut of director/writer Andrew Stanton; his previous work includes the Pixar animated films Finding Nemo (2003) and WALL-E (2008). Co-written by Mark Andrews and Michael Chabon, it is produced by Jim Morris, Colin Wilson, and Lindsey Collins, and scored by Michael Giacchino.

    The film is packed with adventure, aliens, indians, gold mining, and hot Xena chicks, but this failed to attract a large enough audience. The movie’s failure could be due to nebulous trailers and its inherently complex plot. The scope of the film is not an easy one to spoon feed to the average audience.

    The movie establishes that Mars is a dying planet inhabited by warring civilizations and great airships. The film is set in 1881 and centers around Edgar “Ned” Rice Burroughs and his deceased uncle and adventurer, John Carter. Edgar learns more about his uncle after being handed his journal. The real story takes shape as Carter’s adventures unfold.

    People commented on YouTube that the film:

    “Looks like Star Wars, Gladiator, Sherlock Holmes and Prince of Persia all in one.”

    “I liked the movie for its visuals and the choice of actors. but other than that, i personally think it was a disaster-they changed almost ALL of the plot in comparison to the novel. Where in the book everything made sense, and followed some logic, in the movie it was the opposite. i felt that a lot of scenes were not very natural and in some way forced. The biggest failure was in capturing, or rather lack of it, the emotional change in the characters and thus Barsoom, influenced by John Carter.”

    “The reason why this movie is a cliche, is bec the book the princess of mars was written more than 100 yrs ago and all the other extraterrestrial movies are based on these books….Movie was great Thank you for bringing Jon Carter alive…the inspiration to superman. Star wars, avatar etc etc.”

    “This movie is going to flop big time. Boring as hell. It could go down as one of the biggest movie disasters in history – route that many insiders thought avatar would go down. The difference between avatar and this movie is that James Cameron captured a sense of wonderment with his film and the storyline was emotionally driven with very little political nonsense. This movie leaves you bored and caring little for the main characters.”

    John Carter received 51% on Rotten Tomatoes.com’s Tomatoemeter while 71% of audiences rated it positively. The main reviewer for the film commented on Rotten Tomatoes that, “While John Carter looks terrific and delivers its share of pulpy thrills, it also suffers from uneven pacing and occasionally incomprehensible plotting and characterization.”

  • John Carter Big Flop At Box Office

    John Carter Big Flop At Box Office

    Disney put a lot into their newest big box office hope the sci-fi action flick “John Carter!” With a huge advertising budget and a famous $250 million dollar budget, Things didn’t turn out the way they had hoped. John Carter came in second place this weekend with a whopping total of $30.6 million!

    Last weeks environmental message movie and box office winner “Dr. Suess’ The Lorax” scored another big weekend gaining first place with $39.1 million. Rounding out the top 5 was teen party flick “Project X” at #3 with $11.5 million, horror film “Silent House” at #4 with $7.01 million, and at #5 is the military action flick starring real life NAVY SEALS “Act of Valor” with $7 million.

    John Carter is based on the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs. He first appeared in a magazine serial in 1912 making this movie his centennial appearance. “John Carter” was panned by by critics getting a score of 49% on Rotten Tomatoes, while fans felt is was fairly satisfactory giving it a 72%.

    (image)@MancowMuller
    MancowMuller    Over the weekend, we lost an hour of our lives. And if you sat through “John Carter”, you lost another two.(image) 25 minutes ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    (image)@AH_AdamHughes
    Adam Hughes    So, JOHN CARTER. I liked it, but I didn’t love it; I disliked it, but I didn’t hate it. Bemused, with occasional flashes of WOW! and WTF?(image) 50 minutes ago via Twitter for iPhone ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

  • Fan Trailer for John Carter Outdoes Disney’s Official Work

    Fan Trailer for John Carter Outdoes Disney’s Official Work

    As many of you know, WebProNews is a big supporter of user-generated content, especially when it takes an established property and makes it better. In fact, the user-generated era is producing some incredible content, as the tools of the Internet makes hosting and distribution so much easier than they’ve ever been before.

    With that in mind, consider Disney’s troubles marketing their upcoming John Carter flick, which is based off of Edgar Rice Burroughs’ A Princess of Mars masterpiece. The problem is, if you listen to the word on the street is Disney hasn’t created very much buzz for the upcoming “blockbuster,” offering the public bland, generic John Carter trailers that fail to spark the imagination, as well as the desire to consume.

    Well, thanks to a YouTube collective called “JohnCarterFiles,” we now have a much better example of how Disney should’ve approached this movie:

    Now compare that to Disney’s:


    Apparently Disney thought that focusing on the action sequences was enough to entice the crowds, and considering America’s attraction to anything that’s shiny and tech-friendly, that’s understandable. Sometimes, however, luring them in with a good story still works. Or, as ToplessRobot.com puts it:

    …all the trailers have gone from introducing the character and his journey and the alien cultures of Mars have to showing nothing but action scenes that make the movie look like some kind of combination Avatar and Attack of the Clones, which is not a compliment.

    I think John Carter is going to be pretty good, if not great — I have a lot of trust in director Andrew Stanton — but Disney has just marketed this thing into the ground, and now no one seems interested. They need to do something else… like release this awesome fan-assembled trailer, which uses nothing but previously released footage, but put together in a way that makes the film more unique, more powerful and a lot more interesting.

    What do you think? Does the fan trailer do a better job of capturing the mood of the story better than Disney’s? If so, why hasn’t Disney hired these guys to head up future marketing efforts?

    Lead image courtesy.