Despite Disney having high expectations John Carter would be a hugely successful blockbuster, it lost the company so much money Disney fired its studio chief. Loosely based on the novel A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs, known for Tarzan and other classic pieces of literature, it starred Taylor Kitsch as war-weary military captain John Carter, who finds himself transported to the Red Planet and falling in love with the heroine at the center of Burroughs' book. Princess Dejah's world is on the brink of collapse, and one human man becomes the deciding factor in an epic conflict between Mars' inhabitants.
Despite an exciting adventure story, dazzling visual effects, a strong cast, and the potential to launch a franchise that could have included the rest of John Carter 2 and 3's canceled story plans, the movie was a resounding disappointment. It needed to recoup at least double its Mars-sized production and marketing budget to turn a profit, but its box office failure ended up tarnishing Disney's reputation. Not only did it have to fire its studio chief, but it had to take a substantial write-off, which affected its earnings (and its creative output) for years to come.
John Carter's Box Office Failure Lost Disney $200 Million Dollars
John Carter remains Disney's most significant financial loss to date. With a production budget that initially ballooned to $306.6 million dollars, a British tax rebate was able to bring that number down to $263.7 million, but even so, that number didn't for the $100 million dollars Disney spent on marketing alone. According to Box Office Mojo, John Carter ended its run with a domestic gross of about $73 million and an international gross of $211 million, which means it generated approximately $21 million dollars in profit which, when levied against the marketing budget, IP rights, and costs of distribution, meant a staggering loss of $200 million dollars for Disney.
After director Andrew Stanton's extensive habit of scrapping and reshooting footage created exorbitant production expenses, Disney thought it could throw more money at the problem. It blitzed ments in the weeks leading up to its release on television and in theaters, but the trailers only confused viewers rather than intrigued them. Audiences didn't quite know what to make of the film because John Carter lacked a focused marketing strategy, making it seem like a generic fantasy movie rather than the unique adventure it was.
The Consequences Of John Carter's Box Office Disaster
As a direct result of John Carter's underperformance, Disney's then studio chief Rich Ross resigned the same year, taking the fall for John Carter as well as several other over-budgeted box office bombs. Taylor Kitsch's career, which was supposed to catapult as high as John Carter could jump in Mars' atmosphere, never fully recovered. John Carter's canceled sequels would have meant new exciting stories as well as Disney toys, video games, books, and of course, theme park rides, but all of that completely disappeared.
John Carter had a budget to rival Avatar, but Avatar earned over $2 billion dollars at the worldwide box office after its run, and Disney's own sprawling space fantasy couldn't compete. It's hard to believe that at one time, the House of Mouse shied away from making blockbusters, but John Carter made the entire genre a risk for several years. Disney dropped the rights to "John Carter" in 2014, but with all the traction and financial success it's gaining from its live-action remakes, it would have been nice if the film had gotten a second chance to be better.
