John Carter No More

John Carter opened this past weekend and pulled in $30 million. That may be a lot of mullah for us lay people, but for Hollywood, that's a bust. John Carter cost $250 million to make. They only recouped 12% of the cost. However, it did open 2nd to the Lorax. This was the Lorax's week out.

John Carter is a movie based on the book "Princess of Mars". It's about a man in colonial times who lost his family and refused to continue to fight for the union against the Indians. He finds himself transported to Mars and ends up fighting for a country being conquered by another. This is the short version of the story.

The movie was great, but you wouldn't know that. Neither would I if my fiance didn't take me to see it. Disney did not Market this movie well at all. It is solely their fault in this movie tanking. The trailers for this movie made no sense at all. I kept wondering what this movie is about. Imagery alone does not make a movie sell. I'm sure it also through the rest of the population off.

I was reading an article the other day, wish I saved it to link it, that discussed how Disney's marketing team has gotten so bad. Disney used to be great at marketing. They had population running to see the movies, buy the dvds, and any and all merchandise. Then somehow, they took a turn to only marketing to girls excluding boys. This was their focus for a while. Then they realized they lost a big demographic. So they purchased Marvel in order to try to get the boys back. They did promise to leave Marvel alone. They are doing well with them. Eveyone's dying for the Avengers' movie. However, they ended up hurting themselves.

Disney needs to revamp their marketing team or they should just hire outside the company for marketing. Marketing is making them lose money hand over fist. Something needs to be done. John Carter was a good movie and it left us with a cliff hanger. I doubt they will produce a sequel because this movie is tanking. I do hope it at least makes up the cost in the coming weeks.

My rating is B+ for the movie and F- for Disney's Marketing team.