Disney Expects $200 Million Loss From ‘John Carter’ Flop

John Carter, written and directed by Pixar’s Andrew Stanton, is a massive box office flop. With The Walt Disney Co. projecting a $200 million loss on their books for the quarter through March, the movie is officially one of the largest Hollywood flops of all time.

The movie, also known as John Carter of Mars, is based upon Edgar Rice Burroughs’ book series which began with the 1912 release of “A Princess of Mars” and eventually ended in 1964 with “John Carter of Mars.”

Disney has stated that the John Carter movie has raked in roughly $184 million in worldwide ticket sales, which will more or less be split with the owners of theaters playing the movie. With the rough estimate of $350 million spent between production and marketing, the cost of the movie well exceeds that of sales.

The Disney Company assumes quarterly losses of $80 million to $120 million which will effectively mitigate any profits generated by other movies and home video disc sales.

Christy Lemire, an AP Movie Critic, referred to the movie as “massively confusing” and “deadly dull.” Average user reviews and a massive loss seem to indicate that the chances of a sequel or prequel are almost certainly out of the question.

Hollywood analyst Paul Dergarabedian was quoted saying:

“Obviously no studio puts this much into a movie hoping for this kind of result.”

Profits derived from studio movie productions are only a fraction of the total revenue stream which Disney has to work with. The majority of profits are actually accrued from pay television channels such as “The Worldwide Leader In Sports” ESPN. According to analysts, Disney is expected to post $9.62 billion in revenue for the period.

What do you think of Disney’s estimated $200 million loss from the John Carter movie?

Watch the John Carter movie trailer: