"John Carter of Mars" Moving Ahead!

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Thank you!! I have found the cheap cinemas in my area are showing it in 2D and I will go see it at one of them. Can't find anyone to go with me unfortunately. It seems to have fallen into the "dumb disney fantasy" stereotype with everyone I know. Saying "it's a sci fi book from 1912!" doesn't attract people either, LOL

 

[Maurice]

http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/john-carter-doomed-by-first-trailer.html

Interesting article claiming the movie was doomed ever since the first trailer hit.

I don't agree completely with that article - the first teaser wasn't that bad. I liked the style.

The full trailer was bad, though. I never noticed that the trailer really explains nothing about what is going on.

Oh, I agree with it. The trailers were not gripping and didn't make audiences go, "wow". It reminded me of seeing the first Watchmen trailer in front of The Dark Knight and how "huh?" most of the audience was after that. The Watchmen trailer didn't work for general audiences, and neither did the John Carter ones.

 

[Mr Light]

The budget was 250 production + 100 advertising

 

[{ Emilia }]

I wanted to see it this weekend but I couldn't find a cinema showing it in 2D.

Damn this 3D nonsense!

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I'm so glad I can go to an ancient crappy cinema and see it. The big screen ones are all in 3D. After seeing the horrible pop up book effect of TPM I'll do anything to avoid 3D done after the 2D (unlike Avatar which was actually pretty cool, though would have still preferred 2D).

 

[Mr Light]

The trailers got me excited. I didn't really care about the movie beforehand, knowing nothing about John Carter, but the sweet CGI shots got me excited enough to read the book before seeing the movie.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Here's one place it can be read for free:

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/62/62-h/62-h.htm

I'm hoping for some Frazetta imagery in the movie.

 

[Roshi]

I wanted to see it this weekend but I couldn't find a cinema showing it in 2D.

Damn this 3D nonsense!

If you're rescheduling in Luxembourg, let me know, ok?

 

[Set Harth]

http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/john-carter-doomed-by-first-trailer.html

Interesting article claiming the movie was doomed ever since the first trailer hit.

I don't agree completely with that article - the first teaser wasn't that bad. I liked the style.

The full trailer was bad, though. I never noticed that the trailer really explains nothing about what is going on.

Oh, I agree with it. The trailers were not gripping and didn't make audiences go, "wow". It reminded me of seeing the first Watchmen trailer in front of The Dark Knight and how "huh?" most of the audience was after that. The Watchmen trailer didn't work for general audiences, and neither did the John Carter ones.

I thought the Watchmen trailer was great. It's just that general audiences didn't read the book and only like what they're told to like.

 

[Warped9]

Thank you!! I have found the cheap cinemas in my area are showing it in 2D and I will go see it at one of them. Can't find anyone to go with me unfortunately. It seems to have fallen into the "dumb disney fantasy" stereotype with everyone I know. Saying "it's a sci fi book from 1912!" doesn't attract people either, LOL

This is indeed a problem the film faces. Never mind the word of those who have actually seen it. It's kind of like people protesting a book they've never actually read.

It's actually a decent movie and if the marketing had been smarter it probably would have opened better and more interest would have been generated. But as is "it's a flop" simply because so many people seem to say so despite the fact that most in the audiences that have seen it generally liked it.

 

[davejames]

http://www.vulture.com/2012/03/john-carter-doomed-by-first-trailer.html

Interesting article claiming the movie was doomed ever since the first trailer hit.

Wow, interesting. Although to be honest, with the material they had to work with, I don't think they could have come up with ANY trailer that really would have grabbed people.

Even the better fan trailers still made it look like a boring Prince of Persia knockoff, with the same video-gamey action sequences and giant CGI creatures we've seen in a dozen other movies.

Hell, I'm a HUGE fan of retro scifi, but nothing about the look of this movie made me want to see it.

 

[Hyperspace05]

The Watchmen trailer didn't work for general audiences, and neither did the John Carter ones.

I thought the Watchmen trailer was great. It's just that general audiences didn't read the book and only like what they're told to like.

C'mon, don't be a douche. Sometimes people like different things, y'know? Just because some like different things than you does NOT mean that people just do what they are told.

The Watchmen teasers and trailer were the equivalent of 'preaching to the choir'. If you did not know anything about the source material, you had NO IDEA what the film was about. It was just pretty/weird images set to music. There was no attempt to explain the world - none at all. It was a trailer just for existing fans - which is the wrong way to approach marketing.

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

Watchmen opened to $55 million domestic, so its marketing campaign was reasonably effective in drawing a big opening weekend audience (although its opening fell short of the $70 million-odd opening WB was hoping for). Its problem was short legs and limited interest in international markets.

 

[Professor Zoom]

The Watchmen trailer didn't work for general audiences, and neither did the John Carter ones.

I thought the Watchmen trailer was great. It's just that general audiences didn't read the book and only like what they're told to like.

C'mon, don't be a douche. Sometimes people like different things, y'know? Just because some like different things than you does NOT mean that people just do what they are told.

Agreed. Why do sci-fi nerds think THEY are the only free thinkers in an audience....?

 

[Sindatur]

The Watchmen trailer didn't work for general audiences, and neither did the John Carter ones.

I thought the Watchmen trailer was great. It's just that general audiences didn't read the book and only like what they're told to like.

C'mon, don't be a douche. Sometimes people like different things, y'know? Just because some like different things than you does NOT mean that people just do what they are told.

The Watchmen teasers and trailer were the equivalent of 'preaching to the choir'. If you did not know anything about the source material, you had NO IDEA what the film was about. It was just pretty/weird images set to music. There was no attempt to explain the world - none at all. It was a trailer just for existing fans - which is the wrong way to approach marketing.

I knew nothing of The Watchmen, but, I like Superhero movies, so, the Trailers intrigued me, and made me interested in watching it, not at the theater, (I almost never go to the theater, in the past 11 years, I've only seen the Harry Potters and 2 or 3 others) but when it came to on Demand, I rented it, and I was severely disappointed, I wasn't expecting to have no characters to root for. So, the Trailers did make me want to watch it, but, didn't prepare me for the movie I saw, and left me disappointed

 

[Out Of My Vulcan Mind]

From Box Office Mojo:

At $17.5 million, John Carter scored the fourth-highest debut in Russian box office history. It did do solid business throughout the Asian Pacific marketplace as well—its biggest openings there were in South Korea ($3.9 million) and Australia ($3.4 million).

Otherwise, though, the numbers were fairly unremarkable. In Europe, the movie saw middling results in France ($3.8 million), the U.K. ($3.3 million), Germany ($3 million), Spain ($2.8 million) and Italy ($1.6 million). It was slightly better in Latin America ($2.9 million in Mexico and $2.4 million in Brazil, for example), but none of these figures suggest the movie is in for blockbuster runs.

Considering China and Japan are the largest markets in the Asian Pacific region and have yet to open, John Carter could ultimately be in for a respectable final tally. Still, historical comparisons seem to suggest that the best case scenario is around $300 million overseas, which combined with its middling domestic performance isn't going to be nearly enough to put this one in the black.

 

[Harvey]

No doubt it'll make its money back in television sales (and, to a lesser extent, home video). It's just not going to be the financial success Disney had hoped it would be (a weak domestic opening is going to reduce what Disney can sell it for to TV). I'd peg a sequel as unlikely.

 

[Sindatur]

Why would a movie with a $250M Budget only open on 300 screens? How can it possibly be expected to make the budget back? That is what an earlier post stated, right, that it opened to a meager 300 screens?

Don't big budget films typically open on 1000s of screens?

 

[Professor Zoom]

Why would a movie with a $250M Budget only open on 300 screens? How can it possibly be expected to make the budget back? That is what an earlier post stated, right, that it opened to a meager 300 screens?

Don't big budget films typically open on 1000s of screens?

300? Box office mojo says 3,749 in the US.

 

[Sindatur]

Why would a movie with a $250M Budget only open on 300 screens? How can it possibly be expected to make the budget back? That is what an earlier post stated, right, that it opened to a meager 300 screens?

Don't big budget films typically open on 1000s of screens?

300? Box office mojo says 3,749 in the US.

Ah, OK, it must've been a typo on the post, 300, rather than 3000. I thought that was incredibly strange, thanks